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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SWEDENBORG: 

HARBINGER OF THE NEW AGE 

OF 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

BY 

BENJAMIN WORCESTER 



PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1910 



< 



COPYRIGHT, I9IO, BY HORACE PARKER CHANDLER AND 
JAMES EVERETT YOUNG 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



C'CLA 278734 



The natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; 
neither can he know them, because they are spirit- 
ually discerned. 

i Corinthians ii, 14. 

Behold, I make all things new. 

Revelation xxi, 5. 



NOTE 

This small work, while it may sevve as a brief 
but compendious biography of the man Sweden- 
borg, has the higher purpose to show how at the 
culmination of the desolation of the Church of 
our Lord, foretold by Him, He Himself by the 
orderly enlightening of the mind of one of His 
servants has provided for the enlightening of the 
many as to His Divine purpose and presence in 
His Holy Word — whereby His face may now 
again be seen in the clouds of the misinterpreted 
letter. 

Those who desire more particulars about Swe- 
denborg himself may find them in the author's 
"Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg' 1 
(J. B. Lippincott Company), and in the three 
large volumes of Documents by R. L. Tafel 
(Swedenborg Society, London). 



CONTENTS 

I. The Consummation of the Age . . i 

II. Emanuel Swedenborg : Parentage and 

Early Life 23 

III. Scientific Pursuits at Home ... 46 

IV. Further Studies and Publications 

Abroad 75 

V. Continued Study of the Body in 

Search of the Soul 106 

VI. Continued Study of the Animal 

Kingdom : Spiritual Experience . 137 

VII. Opening of Spiritual Sight : Unfold- 
ing of the Word 165 

VIII. " The Apocalypse Explained " and 

Other Works 189 

IX. Manner of Life in Later Period . 209 

X. Later Period of Life: Conclusion . 249 

Index 287 



SWEDENBORG 

HARBINGER OF THE NEW AGE 

I 

THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

The Christian Church recognizes that it is 
entering upon a new stage of life, with promise 
of a freer, more spiritual, and more beneficent 
existence than it has yet known. Of the imme- 
diate cause of this new development, and of its 
place in fulfilment of the predictions of our Lord, 
the Church at large has little or nothing to say. 
Only in the inner content of these predictions, 
as unfolded by Swedenborg, is the light now break- 
ing from the east even unto the west plainly seen 
to be that of the Lord's Second Coming, with 
His Holy Spirit, calling all things to our remem- 
brance whatsoever He has said unto us and guid- 
ing us into all truth. For clearer apprehension of 
this epoch in men's spiritual development let us 
take a rapid glance, approximately from Sweden- 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

borg's own point of view, over the course of this 
development from its inception. 

Our highest conception of the Creator is of 
Infinite Love, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Power. 
Man's creation into the Divine image and like- 
ness means therefore the form and capacity with 
which he is endowed to receive and live his meas- 
ure of this Love, Wisdom, and Power. For the 
basis of his existence he has a material, animal 
nature, with its instincts and inflow of life from 
the Only Life. For development into the image 
and likeness of the Creator he has an inner or- 
ganism, consisting of heart to receive and give 
forth love and of understanding to receive and 
utter wisdom, with liberty and power to act there- 
from. The handmaid of the understanding is ob- 
servation, the master of the house is reason — 
the power of collating ideas and drawing con- 
clusions. To the handmaid the universe unfolds 
itself in which as in a mirror may be seen the 
Divine purpose, creating an infinity of organisms 
for mutual ever-ascending service, with man him- 
self at the head, anointed with the high mission 
to aspire to the Divine image, and to accept the 
Divine will for his own. But the fulfilling of this 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

mission depends on his accepting with heart and 
reason the Divine guidance, which at all times and 
under all conditions is provided in such form as 
can be in freedom accepted — in the " still small 
voice," in inspired words, or in portentous signs. 
It is the accumulation of these revealings of 
the Divine will that has come down to us in our 
Holy Scriptures, in which we recognize the Pur- 
pose or Word of God in adaptation to the various 
states and conditions of men. This Word, or 
revelation of the Divine will, is given in man's 
own language and form of thought, even as our 
Lord Himself gave it to the people in parable. 
But in coming forth through heaven into man's 
thought and speech, the Word does not lose its 
Divine content. It simply embodies this in corre- 
sponding forms of lower degree. Thus this written 
Word is the foot of a ladder on which man and 
angel may ascend in thought into the presence of 
its Giver. Under this recognition of the spiritual 
and Divine content of the Scriptures incongruities 
in the letter are easily referable to human crudi- 
ties of thought. Within, all is compatible with 
the infinite wisdom and love of Him whose will it 
reveals, full of instruction for angels and men. 

3 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

The first chapter of the Book of Genesis sets 
forth in terms a child may in his manner appre- 
hend the order of the Divine process of creation. 
Of this order the first element is the outgoing of 
the Divine life through successive degrees of spir- 
itual and material substance that it creates, of 
less and less, even to least life. In the beginning 
God created the heaven and the earth. In the out- 
most, least living substance created there is yet 
a certain power of reaction, born of its very inert- 
ness. And the second element of the Divine order 
of creation is that out of this first, simple, least- 
living recipient through its reaction are evolved 
by regular — we say natural — process higher, 
more complex, and more living recipients, to re- 
ceive higher or inner degrees of life from the 
One Source. The third element of this order is 
that this advance is made stage by stage, day 
after day, evening being the womb of the new 
morning. Evening was and morning was one day. 
This involves the decline of each successive stage 
after serving its purpose and maturing the germ 
for a new stage. Thus one generation of life gives 
way to its successor. The corn of wheat falls to 
the ground and dies in bringing forth a new 

4 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

plant, in which in new form its life is continued. 
The leaf falls after having formed in its axil the 
bud for a new shoot, and in decaying furnishes 
food for the new growth. Last in order, we learn 
that man in the image and likeness of his Crea- 
tor is the first and final purpose in all creation. 

How beautifully this order was followed in the 
creation of the earth and its inhabitants is known 
to the geologist, even as summarized in the rec- 
ord of Genesis up to the first presentation of 
man in the Divine image and likeness. And a 
deeper, higher fulfilment of the same order is 
found by Swedenborg in the evolution of the spir- 
itual man into this image and likeness, out of the 
mind formless and void of the mere animal man 
— represented by the formless and empty earth 
enshrouded in darkness. And again in the same 
record is found the order of evolution of the spir- 
itual man out of the natural to all time. 

Of the primeval man we can know little. He 
left no records, no tradition. Of the regenerated 
heavenly but infantile race represented by Adam 
and Eve, first reproducing in infantile manner the 
Divine image and implanting in the inmost con- 
sciousness of mankind a foregleam of the condi- 

5 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

tion to which it should in the end attain, Sweden- 
borg learned much in the other world, quite in 
accordance with our traditions of the Golden Age. 
With this called by him the Most Ancient Church 
the history of man begins, though in scarce other 
than mythical form. Of the immediate revelation 
to it of the Divine will we have intimation in the 
voice of the Lord God heard by Adam. Of its 
duration we know nothing, but may conjecture it 
to have equalled all recorded time. Of its decline, 
due to the growing child desire to taste and 
choose for himself what to call good, we have 
symbolized record in the following of the ser- 
pent's counsel and in the decadent generations of 
Adam. The moral and spiritual desolation at the 
end of this first church swamped by accumulating 
falsities is represented by the flood, out of which 
was Divinely rescued the germ for a new devel- 
opment under the name of Noah [Rest]. 

The men of this succeeding age, called by 
Swedenborg the Ancient Church, though no 
longer to be led by the angels of infancy who do 
always behold the face of the Father in heaven, 
were yet willing to be instructed of heaven 
through their wise men learned in ancient tradi- 

6 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

tions. With growing power of thought and im- 
agination their successive generations developed 
language, song, and art — notably that of build- 
ing — during thousands or myriads of years, over 
all central and southwestern Asia and northeast- 
ern Africa. Of their religion, at first heaven- 
derived and spiritual, we have remains in the 
early Hebrew Scriptures and in the sacred books 
of India, Persia, Egypt, and Turkestan. On the 
remains of their language all our modern lan- 
guages are based. Of their prowess in building, 
the rock-temples of India and the pyramids of 
Egypt bear enduring witness, though of the period 
of religious decadence. Of their art the remains 
left in Greece by a late offshoot of the same 
stock, are still unequalled by modern genius. 
Grecian art and philosophy with Roman states- 
manship have furnished the basis of modern civ- 
ilization, as the Gospel of our Lord has furnished 
the inspiration — even as we see exemplified in 
the evolution of the heaven-aspiring Christian 
cathedral. 

In the discriminating thought of this Ancient 
Church at its best estate it distinguished and rev- 
erenced divers attributes of the Deity. In its de- 

7 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

cadence these attributes were personified and 
imaged, till in its downfall the images them- 
selves were worshipped and idolatry was becoming 
universal. Then lest the knowledge of the One 
God and of His laws of life should be lost from 
the face of the earth, midway in both time and 
space between the erection of the pyramids and 
that of the Grecian temples, in the very centre of 
civilization, a new race was planted, in the land 
of Canaan — the old home perhaps of Adam and 
Eve — a race of Shemitic, still Noachian stock, 
a simple, nomadic race of unequalled persistence, 
fitting them to receive and preserve in integrity 
a new revelation of the Creator and His laws in 
concrete form — even graven in stone. These 
laws accompanied by many ritual statutes, with 
remains of the earlier Scriptural records, with the 
true yet symbolic history of this people, with 
their songs of prayer and praise, with prophecy 
from beginning to end of the coming of the Mes- 
siah who should bring dire judgment on their 
nation for their sins while bringing eternal salva- 
tion to those who would accept His redemption — 
all this was the spiritual legacy of this Noachian 
age to the ages to come. Says Schlegel — 

8 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

"The significant brevity of the first pages of 
the Mosaic history involves much profound truth 
for us in these later ages . . . did we but know- 
how to extract the simple sense with like sim- 
plicity. ... In general the whole tenor of the 
Mosaic writings, like the existence of the Hebrew 
nation, was formed for futurity. ... So the whole 
Hebrew people may in a lofty sense be called 
prophetic, and have been really so in their his- 
torical existence and destiny." 1 "The Hebrew 
tongue was eminently adapted to the high spirit- 
ual destination of the Hebrew people, and was a 
fit organ of the prophetic revelation and promises 
imparted to that nation/' 2 

The ever deplorable conduct of the Jewish lead- 
ers in crucifying Him who came to save them 
ended the leadership of that church in the spiritual 
development of mankind. But their traditions, 
their Scriptures remained to become the frame- 
work of the new church of the Lord, itself the 
prototype of the New Jerusalem, His final taber- 
nacle with men. And we are never to forget the 
maternal service of the Hebrew Church for the 
birth of its Lord into the world, first in the written 

1 Philosophy of History, p. 120. 2 lb. p, 250. 

9 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Word and then in its fulfilment in the flesh, our 
ever present Lord. The maternal office was not 
more real materially than it was spiritually. It was 
foretold to Eve with reference to her seed. It 
was repeated to Abraham who rejoiced to see the 
day coming. Its fulfilment was the theme of the 
prophets and was voiced in the Psalms of David. 
Abraham's obedience, repeated in Mary's Behold 
the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto vie as thou 
hast said, furnished the fit germ for the human life 
of our Lord. And Mary said, My soul doth mag- 
nify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, 
my Saviour. 

Our Lord's coming in the flesh bringing the 
light of the Divine presence down among men 
caused a judgment on those to whom the light 
came, both in this world and in the world of spirits 
where the evil were assaulting the gates of heaven 
itself. His resistance to their assault upon His 
human nature at the same time cast them down 
in the spirit world to their home beneath, even as 
He declared — I beheld Satan as lightning fallen 
from heaven. But the Lord came not merely for 
judgment. He came also for a light to enlighten 
the Gentiles. The Gentiles were all people out- 

10 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

side of the Jewish race. And indeed it was among 
these outside nations that His light was chiefly 
accepted and His Church established, on the faith 
that He was the Christ, the Son of the living 
God. In Him at last was seen Man in the image 
and likeness of God. He first did the will of the 
Father on earth as it is done in heaven, therein 
giving man the example for all time, abiding in 
him and by His Holy Spirit giving him the will 
to follow, as he will receive it. The world was 
ripe for the beginning of this realization of what 
living in the image and likeness of God might 
mean, as is evident from its marvellous spread 
during the early centuries ; but only for the be- 
ginning. The young man thought he desired 
eternal life, the life of the kingdom of heaven. 
But when told to renounce all that he had of this 
world, he was very sorrowful, for he had great 
possessions. It was not difficult for the first dis- 
ciples to give up worldly possessions, of which 
they had no great store — to forsake their nets 
and follow their Lord. But for this they at once 
asked what reward they should have in heaven, 
and disputed among themselves which should 
there be the greatest. Doubtless in this claim for 

ii 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

reward in His kingdom the Lord saw the tares 
sown with the wheat and foresaw the sad end of 
this first age of His Church. None knew so well 
as He the slow and painful steps by which man 
must be led out of the natural self-seeking life 
of this world into the spiritual self-devoting life of 
the Father's kingdom. 

Man was yet but in early youth. A great step 
was gained in teaching him to set his heart, not 
on the riches and honors of earth where moth 
and rust doth corrupt, but on the treasures in 
heaven where neither moth nor rust doth cor- 
rupt and thieves do not break through nor steal. 
The tares must be let alone until a riper age, 
when their fruit should be manifest and the de- 
veloped reason should be ready to bind them in 
bundles and burn them. But this acceptance of 
the Gospel mainly through fear of torment or 
hope of reward in heaven gave every opportunity 
to self-seeking leaders for gaining control of their 
converts to their own personal advantage. Re- 
taining the Gospel in their own hands, in a lan- 
guage which none but themselves could read, 
they devised creeds and canons to maintain their 
own supremacy. They took away the key of 

12 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

knowledge. Entering not into the kingdom them- 
selves, them that would enter they hindered, all 
to their own worldly gain. 

Luther and his associates revolted from this 
prostitution of the religion of our Lord, so graph- 
ically represented to John in vision as Babylon 
the great adulteress. And in two centuries they 
and their followers did much to restore a true 
conception of the life of the kingdom and of the 
duty of the Church. But in controverting the 
error that heaven could be merited by undergoing 
the penances and paying the tribute imposed by 
the Church of Rome, substituting therefor be- 
lief only in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, Lu- 
ther went too far. To emphasize the distinction 
between his Reformed Church and the Roman 
Catholic, he declared charity and good works to 
be of no avail for salvation. 

In the Protestant wing of the Church belief 
in the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ was the 
only means of attaining heaven, and the con- 
demnation of all who had not this grace was 
proclaimed with a severity equal to that of the 
anathemas of the Church of Rome. Either wing 
of the Lord's Church was ready to burn the 

*3 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

other. The errors of both were sustained by a 
fundamental misunderstanding of the Trinity, 
which was unfortunately conceived as of distinct 
persons with different attributes. The Father 
was regarded as avenging justice and the Son 
as loving mercy, by which He atoned for the 
never-forgiven sin of Adam in taking upon Him- 
self the punishment of the cross, the Father ac- 
cepting the sacrifice so far as to pardon those 
whom the Son should elect. 

Thus darkened was the Sun of heaven. This 
unreasonableness of doctrine and lack of Chris- 
tian charity, wars and massacres under the flag 
of Christian faith, with the profligate luxury of 
church officials in contrast with the desperate 
poverty of the people, easily bred contempt for 
religion at a time when by the art of printing 
great strides had been made in popular education. 
What wonder that atheism and deism were hav- 
ing their own way ! Religion and morality in the 
eighteenth century were fast disappearing. The 
judgment of the Christian Church in the view of 
its sanest adherents was near at hand. 

John Albert Bengel [d. 1752] said, "The doc- 
trine of the Holy Spirit is already gone ; that of 

14 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

Christ is on the wane ; and that of the creation 
hangs but by a slender thread. ... It is made 
a part of politics so to act and speak as to leave 
no trace of religion, God, and Christ. " ■ 

Dr. Dorner says, "The edifice of Lutheran 
Chris tology had been for the most part already 
forsaken by its inhabitants before 1750. . . . A 
deistical atmosphere seemed to have settled upon 
this generation, and to have cut it off from vital 
communion with God." 2 

Leibnitz in the earlier part of the century had 
said, " The state to which we are approaching is 
one of the signs by which will be recognized that 
final war announced by Jesus Christ : Neverthe- 
less, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find 
faith on the earth ? " 3 

Abbey and Overton say, " It was about the 
middle of the century when irreligion and immo- 
rality reached their climax. ,,4 

In 1753 Sir John Barnard said, "At present 
it really seems to be the fashion for a man to de- 

1 Dr. J. S. Dorner: Hist. Prot. Theology, ii, 213. 

2 lb. ii, 274, 296. 

3 Palmer : The Church 0} Christ, i, 348. 

4 English Church in Eighteenth Century, ii, 44. 

is 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

clare himself of no religion." And Archbishop 
Lecker declared that immorality and irreligion 
were grown almost beyond ecclesiastical power. 1 

In France it was if possible worse, and Carlyle 
well says, " A century so opulent in accumulated 
falsities . . . opulent in that bad way as never 
century before was ! Which had no longer the con- 
sciousness of being false, so false had it grown ; 
and was so steeped in falsity, and impregnated 
with it to the very bone, that — in fact the meas- 
ure of the thing was full, and a French Revolution 
had to end it." 2 

"In Germany," says Schlegel, "during the 
atheistic and revolutionary period of the French 
philosophy, immediately prior to the French Rev- 
olution, as well as at its commencement, Chris- 
tianity and in fact all religion was regarded as a 
mere prejudice of the infancy of the human mind, 
totally destitute of foundation in truth, and no 
longer adapted to the spirit of the age ; monarchy 
and the whole civilization of modern Europe as 
abuses no longer to be tolerated. It was only 
when men had reached this extreme term of their 

1 Abbey and Overton : op. cit. ii, 44. 

2 Life of Frederick the Great t i, 11. 

16 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

boasted enlightenment, that a reaction took place. 
But prior to this, toward the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century, and in the ten years immediately 
subsequent, the spirit of the age bore all before 
it in its irresistible progress. " ■ 

This condition of the Christian Church in the 
eighteenth century was plainly the abomination 
of desolation foretold by the Lord as to come at 
the consummation of the age [commonly but 
erroneously rendered "the end of the world"], 
when the Sun — the face of the Lord of heaven — 
should be darkened, and the Moon — faith in 
Him — should not give her light, and the stars 
of heaven — all knowledge of Him and His will 
— should fall from their places. Such it was rec- 
ognized to be by devout, distressed students of 
the time, and the judgment foretold by our Lord 
and foreseen in vision by John was perceived to 
be at hand. By concurrent testimony it would 
seem that the time was ripe for this judgment in 
the middle of the eighteenth century. The judg- 
ment was not seen to come. But notably from 
about that time a change came over the Christian 
Church, and students of history ever since are 

1 Op. cit. ii, 268. 

17 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

marvelling, searching for the cause of the revivi- 
fication of the churches. A downward course 
does not of itself turn into an upward course. 
Satan does not let go his hold of man or race of 
his own will. As in the first century, so in the 
eighteenth, he could be cast down from his en- 
croachment on heaven by no less power than 
that of the Son of God, the Word made flesh and 
dwelling among us. 

It was the sign of the Son of Man to be seen 
again in the clouds of heaven that was to effect 
the judgment. It was the Lion of the tribe of 
Judah who alone could prevail to loose the seals 
of the Book, at once the Book of the Word and 
the Book of the judgment. The two prophecies 
are one. In the written Word after the resurrec- 
tion, as in the flesh transfigured on the mount, the 
Lord showed Himself to His disciples in glory, 
Son of God in Son of Man. But in the succeeding 
centuries, as we have seen, clouds of misinterpre- 
tation, the clouds of tri-personalism, of vicarious 
atonement, and of salvation by faith alone, had 
hidden His face from men's minds. The disper- 
sion of these clouds, the re-appearance of the face 
— the grace and truth — of the Son of Man, even 

18 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

in the letter of His written Word, was to effect 
the judgment on the declining age of the Church 
and reveal the dawning light of the new age. 

Under this simple interpretation of the judg- 
ment we are to look for its effects in the clearing 
of the spiritual atmosphere, in release of men's 
minds from the bondage of perverted faith — 
Peter girded by another and carried whither he 
would not — and in increasing return to the 
simple, heart-felt instruction of the Gospel. It 
was the beloved disciple John who was to remain 
till his Lord should come again, and to whom in 
vision the spiritual judgment was portrayed — 
John, who stands for the love of the Church in 
good works, as Peter for its faith. And as among 
the Jews at our Lord's first coming, so in the 
midst of the desolation of the eighteenth century 
there were not a few memorable examples of 
God-fearing, self-denying, Samaritan lives. Into 
this good heart coupled with trained intellect, 
preserved as the germ for the new age, was re- 
ceived the first dawn of light, and in the marvel- 
lous spread of this light thus far we recognize 
the certainty of the Lord's renewed presence in 
His Church. Most strikingly is this shown in the 

*9 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

new charity now prevailing between one sect of 
the Church and another and between Christian 
and pagan. Never before since the angels' song 
was heard on the hills of Judea — Peace on earth 
and good-will toward men — has its accomplish- 
ment seemed so near. Year by year, day by day 
is the evidence accumulating that the crisis is 
past and the new coming of our Lord begun, and 
this dating from about the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century. But where and how was the vis- 
ion to John fulfilled ? 

No one answers but Swedenborg, who in his 
Apocalypsis Revelata describes the fulfilment, 
clause by clause, of the whole of this vision — 
not in this world, but in the vast spirit world, 
where were gathered an innumerable multitude, 
good and bad together, awaiting the judgment 
that the new coming of the Lord in His Word 
would effect. Were this conception of the judg- 
ment mere imagination, instead of the stern re- 
ality which Swedenborg affirms, how sublime! 
Judgment of scores of generations in place of the 
one or two possible on earth, without limit of 
space or time ; judgment of the inner souls and 
tenets of men there revealed ; overthrow of spirit 

20 



THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE 

heavens and earth, leaving this earth of ours to 
bide its time ; angels without number bearing the 
Divine light down to the overthrow of the prince 
of darkness and all his satellites ! In truth the 
spirit world alone could be fit theatre for the 
fulfilment of the vision vouchsafed to John. But 
on earth the seals of the Book were to be loosed 
at the same time, for spirits in the flesh live always 
in real though unseen communion with spirits 
in the spirit world, and their thoughts are held in 
common. In fact, with spirits as with men, spir- 
itual thought must have its ultimate basis in ma- 
terial thought. The letter of the Word of God is 
human, even material, in form. The opening of its 
inner, spiritual, heavenly, and Divine content can 
be only by the Lord Himself by means of His 
Holy Spirit in the suitably prepared mind of man. 
Before He left their sight the Lord told His 
disciples that He had many things to say to them, 
but they could not bear them then. Howbeit when 
He should come to them with His Holy Spirit He 
would call all things to their remembrance what- 
soever He had said unto them and would guide 
them into all truth. A special fulfilment of this 
promise was given to these immediate disciples, 

21 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

for their special vocation, but its larger, all-em- 
bracing fulfilment could not come till the new 
revelation of His face in His Word, which was in- 
deed the same thing, and before which the Gospel 
must first be preached unto all the nations. It 
was by the opening of the heart to the Holy Spirit 
that the revelation of the grace and truth in His 
Word could be given. 

The Word from Alpha to Omega is one. Only 
the interpretation varies as gradually given with 
man's developing capacity to receive. The ages 
for infantile reception, for childhood instruction 
and obedience, for blind reliance on priests and 
their dogmas, had passed. The new light now 
needed must explain the will of God and His provi- 
dence for man in a rational, intelligible way, not 
as a substitute for faith, but as her handmaid, 
for her ultimate support. It must be addressed to 
the understanding and must therefore come, not 
with authority to compel, but with light leading 
into all truth, in accordance with our Lord's pro- 
mise. The mind to receive this new light in ful- 
ness must be trained in the learning and reason 
of the world, and the heart must be open to the 
Spirit. Where was it to be found ? 



II 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG I PARENTAGE AND 
EARLY LIFE 

In the middle of the seventeenth century was 
living an honest, God-fearing, and prosperous 
miner named Daniel Isaksson, with his wife Anna, 
daughter of a Swedish pastor, on his homestead 
called Sweden, a hundred and twenty miles north- 
west from Stockholm. Grateful for the large 
family Heaven sent them, Daniel would often say 
at dinner, " Thank you, my children, for this meal, 
for I have dined with you and not you with me : 
God has given me food for your sakes." His sec- 
ond son Jesper, born in 1653, to °k the name Swed- 
berg from the homestead. Later, when for his 
services to church and state his family was en- 
nobled, Jesper' s children received the name Swe- 
denborg, though the father himself retained the 
name Swedberg. Inheriting his father's piety, on 
being rescued in boyhood from imminent death 
— caught under a mill-wheel — he resolved never 
to forget either morning or evening to commit 

23 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

himself to GocTs keeping and to the protection of 
His holy angels. 

Having received an excellent education at Upsal 
and abroad, in 1685 Jesper Swedberg was or- 
dained and appointed first chaplain to the King's 
regiment of Life Guards, later royal chaplain at 
Stockholm. To the soldiers he taught the cate- 
chism and to King Charles XI he preached boldly 
without fear or favor, yet so pleasing the King 
that their Majesties stood as godfather and god- 
mother to one of his daughters. " Ask of me," 
said the King, " what you will and you shall have 
it." But Swedberg, as he says, never asked the 
least thing for himself or his family, using his in- 
fluence only for the appointment of faithful men 
to office. For a time he was the beloved pastor of 
a small parish, then on the King's insistence be- 
came Professor, and afterward Rector of the Uni- 
versity at Upsal. By the King's orders he prepared 
and published, largely at his own expense, a re- 
vision of the Swedish Bible, which was however 
suppressed by the jealousy of the clergy. At 
Upsal where Emanuel passed his childhood Swed- 
berg during several professorships and as Dean 
of the cathedral devoted himself to the well-being 

24 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

of the students, and so successfully that he was 
constantly cheered by their affection, and he could 
say after his ten years' life with them that in all 
that time the King had never received a single 
bad report of them. 

In 1703 this pleasant life at Upsal was inter- 
rupted, to Swedberg's entire surprise, by his re- 
ceiving from the young King Charles XII an 
appointment as Bishop of Skara, whither he then 
removed and settled at Brunsbo. He was now 
fifty years old, and here he remained till his death 
at eighty-two, never until the last few years 
neglecting to officiate in public worship. He 
preached indefatigably from the Gospels and the 
Epistles, his sermons always flowing without any 
straining from the text ; for, said he, " then God 
recognizes His own Word." But though always 
making the duties of his sacred office his chief 
care, the good bishop was a devoted husband and 
father. He had married in 1683 Sara Behm, of 
good family, her father long holding the same 
office later held by her son Emanuel, that of As- 
sessor in the College of Mines. By a previous 
marriage to the then Dean of Upsal she had in- 
herited a considerable fortune, which later proved 

25 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

of great assistance in the support of Bishop 
Swedberg's family and in his numerous pub- 
lications. 

Jesper and Sara's first child was a son who died 
in his twelfth year. Asked by his father what he 
should do in heaven, he answered, "I shall pray 
for my father and brothers and sisters. ,, The sec- 
ond child was Anna, to whom and to her husband 
Ericus Benzelius — in 1742 made Archbishop 
of Sweden — Emanuel was always tenderly at- 
tached. He was the next child, born January 29, 
1688, while his father was serving as royal chap- 
lain at Stockholm. Of the name given him his 
father wrote in his autobiography, "I am fully 
convinced that children ought to be given such 
names as will awaken in them and call to their 
minds the fear of God and everything that is 
orderly and righteous. . . . The name of my son 
Emanuel signifies God-with-us — that he may 
always remember God's presence, and that inti- 
mate, holy, and mysterious conjunction with our 
good and gracious God into which we are brought 
by faith, by which we are conjoined with Him 
and are in Him. And blessed be the Lord's 
name! God has to this hour been with him. 

26 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

And may He be further with him until he be 
eternally united with Him in His kingdom! . . . 
I am a Sunday child; and the mother of my 
children, my late wife, was also a Sunday child, 
and all my children were Sunday children except 
Catharine, who was born at Upsal on the third 
day of Easter." After Emanuel came six sons 
and daughters, the last being Margaretha, born 
in 1695, their good mother dying the following 
year, when Emanuel was nine years old. 

It was in 17 19 that the family was ennobled 
by Queen Ulrica Eleonora with the name of 
Swedenborg, and Benzelius with the name of 
Benzelstierna, after which they were entitled to 
seats in the Diet. The Bishop, however, worked 
quietly on under his old name till his death in 
1735, preaching, writing, and publishing without 
ceasing, though with small encouragement and 
few sales. Of his numerous publications he said, 
" If I had all the money which I have invested 
in the printing of books, I would be worth now 
from sixty to seventy thousand dalers in cop- 
per." These were largely sermons and other 
religious works, but also books on the Swedish 
language, grammar and lexicons, school-books, 

27 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

his new Swedish Bible, and a commentary. His 
autobiography is preserved which he wrote for his 
children, and he had much correspondence with 
the colonial missions, especially that of Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware. This mission had been 
established by his influence with the King and 
had elected Swedberg their first bishop, as had 
also the Swedish churches at London and Lis- 
bon, with the King's sanction. 

With these functions and labors of the father 
we are concerned only as they throw light on 
the character and ability transmitted to the son. 
We learn his piety, his faith manifested in charity 
and good works, his loving zeal in the cares in- 
trusted to him, his learning, his integrity and 
boldness for the right, and his indefatigable in- 
dustry. All these traits were indispensable for 
the discharge of the mission to be intrusted to 
the son. And another characteristic, less common 
with other races, he held from his Scandinavian 
ancestry, of utmost importance to the son — his 
constant sense of Divine and angelic supervision 
of the affairs of men. In his first year at Upsal 
Jesper had such a wonderful dream that he did 
not know whether he ought not to call it a reve- 

28 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

lation. He said, "No human tongue can pro- 
nounce and no angel can describe what I then 
saw and heard. " He firmly believed that " God's 
angels are especially present in this sacred office 
[of Divine worship]." He felt sure that he was 
specially protected by angels from malign influ- 
ences and directed in his studies at the Univer- 
sity. How essential was this trust and confidence 
in Divine and heavenly influences to the service 
in store for his son Emanuel we shall see as we 
go on. 

Of Emanuel's childhood he himself wrote late 
in life in answer to the inquiries of his friend 
Dr. Beyer, " From my fourth to my tenth year 
I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, 
salvation, and the spiritual experiences of men ; 
and several times I revealed things at which my 
father and mother marvelled, saying that angels 
must be speaking through me. From my sixth to 
my twelfth year I used to delight in conversing 
with clergymen about faith, saying that the life 
of faith is love, and that the love which imparts 
life is love to the neighbor ; also that God gives 
faith to every one, but that those only receive it 
who practise that love." Thus early was he im- 

29 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

bued, doubtless by his father, with what remained 
the contention of his life. Born in Stockholm, 
removed with his father to Upsal when four 
years old, he received there his education as a 
schoolboy and later as a student in the University. 
His thesis at the conclusion of his course was a 
series of selections from Greek and Latin authors, 
together with some from Scripture, presenting 
certain moral and religious sentiments accom- 
panied with apposite reflections, indicating his 
trend of thought at that time of life. Little more 
is known of his life at the University, but he was 
doubtless living with his sister Anna and Benze- 
lius, his father having removed to his bishopric. 
From his letters to these much loved friends we 
learn what we know of his next ten years of study 
pursued mostly abroad. Within a few months 
after leaving the University he wrote from his 
father's home at Brunsbo begging of Benzelius 
letters to some English college, that he might 
there improve himself in mathematics, or in phys- 
ics and natural history. He adds to his request — 
"As I have always desired to turn to some 
practical use and also to perfect myself in the 
studies which I selected with your advice and ap- 

3° 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

proval, I thought it advisable to choose a subject 
early which I might elaborate in course of time, 
and into which I might introduce much of what 
I should notice and read in foreign countries. This 
course I have always pursued hitherto in my read- 
ing; and now at my departure I propose to my- 
self, as far as concerns mathematics, gradually to 
gather and work up a certain collection, namely, 
of things discovered and to be discovered in mathe- 
matics — or, what is nearly the same thing, the pro- 
gress made in mathematics during the last one or 
two centuries. " "Much kind love" he sends to 
his sister Anna. 

While awaiting letters, the royal permission, 
and perhaps money for his expenses, the young 
graduate learns the art of bookbinding and prac- 
tises music, occasionally filling the organist's place 
at church. At length in 1710, the permission 
having been obtained by his father, he sets out 
for London, whence in October he writes to 
Benzelius — 

"This island has also men of the greatest experi- 
ence in this [mathematical] science ; but these I 
have not yet consulted, because I am not yet suffi- 
ciently acquainted with their language. I study 

31 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Newton daily, and I am very anxious to see and 
hear him. I have provided myself with a small stock 
of books for the study of mathematics, and also 
with a certain number of instruments. . . . The 
magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral was finished a 
few days ago in all its parts. . . . The town is 
distracted by internal dissensions between the 
Anglican and Presbyterian churches ; they are 
incensed against each other with almost deadly 
hatred. . . . Were you, dear brother, to ask me 
about myself, I should say I know that I am alive, 
but not happy ; for I miss you and my home. . . . 
I not only love you more than my own brothers, 
but I even love and revere you as a father. . . . 
May God preserve you alive, that I may meet you 
again! " 

Again he writes in the following April — "I 
visit daily the best mathematicians here in town. 
I have been with Flamsteed, who is regarded the 
best astronomer in England, and who is constantly 
taking observations, which, together with the 
Paris observations, will give us some day a correct 
theory respecting the motion of the moon and of 
its appulse to fixed stars. . . . Newton has laid a 
good foundation for correcting the irregularities 

32 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

of the moon in his Principle . . . You encourage 
me to go on with my studies ; but I think that I 
ought rather to be discouraged, as I have such 
an i immoderate desire ' for them, especially for as- 
tronomy and mechanics. I also turn my lodgings 
to some use, and change them often. At first I 
was at a watchmaker's, afterward at a cabinet- 
maker's, and now I am at a mathematical-instru- 
ment maker's. From them I learn their trades, 
which some day will be of use to me. I have re- 
cently computed for my own pleasure several 
useful tables for the latitude of Upsal, and all the 
solar and lunar eclipses which will take place be- 
tween 17 1 2 and 1 72 1. . . . In undertaking in 
astronomy to facilitate the calculation of eclipses, 
and of the motion of the moon outside that of 
the syzygies, and also in undertaking to correct 
the tables so as to agree with the new observa- 
tions, I shall have enough to do." 

A letter of January, 17 12, answers various 
questions on scientific matters referred to him 
by Benzelius and the Literary Society of Upsal. 
Among other things our young student wanted 
to send home some English globes, but when 
mounted they were very dear as well as difficult 

35 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

to transport, and he tried in vain to buy paper 
sheets to be mounted at home. Characteristically 
he learned to engrave on copper and drew and 
engraved the plates for a pair of globes. At the 
same time he learned from his landlord to make 
brass instruments, and could when at home mount 
the globes. Of his studies he says — 

" With regard to astronomy I have made such 
progress in it as to have discovered much which 
I think will be useful in its study. Although in 
the beginning it made my brain ache, yet long 
speculations are now no longer difficult for me. I 
searched closely for all propositions for finding 
the terrestrial longitude, but could not find a 
single one ; I have therefore originated a method 
by means of the moon, which is unerring, and 
I am certain that it is the best which has yet 
been advanced. In a short time I will inform the 
Royal Society that I have a proposition to make 
on this subject, stating my points, If it is favor- 
ably received by these gentlemen, I shall publish 
it here ; if not, in France. I have also discovered 
many new methods for observing the planets, the 
moon, and the stars; that which concerns the 
moon and its parallaxes, diameter, and inequality, 

34 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

I will publish whenever an opportunity arises. I 
am now busy working my way through algebra 
and the higher geometry, and I intend to make 
such progress in it as to be able in time to con- 
tinue Polheimer's discoveries. . . . When the 
plates for the globes arrive in Sweden, Professor 
Elf vius will perhaps take care to have them printed 
and made up. I shall send a specimen very soon ; 
but no impression is to be sold." In this same 
letter he mentions valuable English books, and 
names all the principal poets as well worth read- 
ing for the sake of their imagination alone. In 
mild terms he complains of his father's not sup- 
plying him better with money ; and we find the 
complaint quite pardonable when we remember 
that the father was borrowing his children's 
inheritance from their mother for his own enter- 
prises, and when we learn that Emanuel had re- 
ceived from him but two hundred rixdalers — 
about two hundred and twenty-five dollars — in 
sixteen months. He says it is hard to live with- 
out food or drink. 

Writing again to Benzelius, August, 17 12, he 
repeats his confidence in his new method of find- 
ing the longitude, which Dr. Halley admitted to 

35 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

him orally was the only good method that had 
been proposed. "But," he adds, "as I have not 
met with great encouragement here in England 
among this civil and proud people, I have laid it 
aside for some other place. When I tell them that 
I have some project about longitude, they treat 
it as an impossibility ; and so I do not wish to 
discuss it here. . . . As my speculations made me 
for a time not so sociable as is serviceable and 
useful for me, and as my spirits are somewhat 
exhausted, I have taken refuge for a short time 
in the study of poetry, that. I might be somewhat 
recreated by it. 1 I intend to gain a little reputa- 
tion by this study on some occasion or other during 
this year, and I hope I may have advanced in it as 
much as may be expected from me ; but time and 
others will perhaps judge of this. Still after a time 
I intend to take up mathematics again, although 
at present I am doing nothing in them ; and if I 
am encouraged, I intend to make more discover- 
ies in them than any one else in the present age. 
But without encouragement this would be sheer 
trouble, and it would be like non profecturis litora 

1 An early recreation of his, as shown in some verses written 
in his twelfth year. 

36 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

tubus arare — ploughing the ground with stub- 
born steers. . . . Within three or four months, I 
hope with God's help to be in France ; for I greatly 
desire to understand its fashionable and useful 
language. I hope by that time to have, or to find 
there, letters from you to some of your learned 
correspondents. . . . Your great kindness and 
your favor, of which I have had so many proofs, 
make me believe that your advice and your letters 
will induce my father to be so favorable toward 
me as to send me the funds which are necessary 
for a young man, and which will infuse into me 
new spirit for the prosecution of my studies. Be- 
lieve me, I desire and strive to be an honor to 
my father's house and yours, much more strongly 
than you yourself can wish and endeavor. . . . 
I would have bought the microscope if the price 
had not been so much higher than I could ven- 
ture to pay before receiving your orders. This 
microscope was one which Mr. Marshall showed 
to me especially ; it is quite new, of his own in- 
vention, and shows the motion in fishes very viv- 
idly. There was a glass with a candle placed under 
it, which made the thing itself, and the object, 
much brighter; so that any one could see the 

37 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

blood in the fishes flowing swiftly, like small 
rivulets ; for it flowed in that way, and as rapidly. 
At a watchmaker's I saw a curiosity which I can- 
not forbear mentioning. It was a clock which was 
still, without any motion. On the top of it was a 
candle, and when this was lighted, the clock began 
to go and to keep its true time ; but as soon as 
the candle was blown out, the motion ceased, and 
so on. ... He told me that nobody had as yet 
found out how it could be set in motion by the 
candle. Please remember me kindly to sister 
Anna, my dear sister Hedvig, and also to brother 
Ericus Benzel, the little one, about whose state 
of health I always desire to hear." 

The next letter that has come down to us was 
dated Paris, August, 17 13. Meanwhile Sweden- 
borg had left London and made a considerable 
stay in Holland. "I left Holland," he says, "in- 
tending to make greater progress in mathematics, 
and also to finish all I had designed in that sci- 
ence. Since my arrival here I have been hindered 
in my work by an illness which lasted six weeks, 
and which interfered with my studies and other 
useful employments ; but I have at last recovered, 
and am beginning to make the acquaintance ct 

38 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

the most learned men in this place. I have called 
upon and made the acquaintance of De La Hire, 
who is now a great astronomer and who was for- 
merly a well-known geometrician. I have also been 
frequently with Warrignon, who is the greatest 
geometrician and algebraist in this city, and per- 
haps the greatest in Europe. About eight days 
ago I called upon Abbe Bignon, and presented 
your compliments, on the strength of which I 
was very favorably received by him. I submitted 
to him for examination, and for introduction into 
the Society, three discoveries, two of which were 
in algebra. [The third was his new method of 
finding longitude.] . . . Here in town I avoid 
conversation with Swedes, and shun all those by 
* whom I might be in the least interrupted in my 
studies. What I hear from the learned, I note 
down at once in my journal; it would be too long 
to copy it out and to communicate it to you. . . . 
During my stay in Holland I was most of the 
time in Utrecht, where the Diet ■ met, and where 
I was in great favor with Ambassador Palmquist, 
who had me every day at his house ; every day 

1 The famous Congress of Ambassadors, by which the Span- 
ish Succession was ended and peace secured for a generation. 

39 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

also I had discussions on algebra with him. He 
is a good mathematician and a great algebraist. 
... In Leyden I learned glass-grinding [for tele- 
scopes], and I have now all the instruments and 
utensils belonging to it. . . . You may rest as- 
sured that I entertain the greatest friendship and 
veneration for you; I hope therefore that you 
will not be displeased with me on account of 
my silence and my delay in writing letters, if you 
hear that I am always intent on my studies, so 
that sometimes I omit more important matters." 

Swedenborg's stay in Paris seems to have been 
less than a year, and here seems to end his aspi- 
ration for eminence in pure mathematics. For 
whatever reason, from this time he began to de- 
vote his attention to mechanical and practical 
investigations. Going from Paris by way of 
Hamburg to Rostock, in the north of Mecklen- 
burg, he writes from there to Benzelius, Sept. 8, 
1714 — 

"lam very glad that I have come to a place 
where I have time and leisure to gather up all 
my works and thoughts, which have hitherto 
been without any order and are scattered here 
and there upon scraps of paper. I have always 

40 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

been in want of a place and time to collect them. 
I have now commenced this labor and shall soon 
get it done. I promised my dear father to publish 
an academical thesis, for which I shall select 
some inventions in mechanics which I have at 
hand. Further, I have the following mechanical 
inventions either in hand or fully written out, 
namely — 

" i. The plan of a certain ship which with its 
men can go under the surface of the sea wher- 
ever it chooses, and do great damage to the fleet 
of the enemy. 

"2. A new plan for a siphon, by which a large 
quantity of water may be raised from any river 
to a higher locality in a short time. 

"3. For lifting weights by the aid of water 
and this portable siphon, with greater facility 
than by mechanical powers. 

" 4. For constructing sluices in places where 
there is no fall of water, by means of which en- 
tire ships with their cargoes may be raised to 
any required height within an hour or two. 

" 5. A machine driven by fire, for throwing out 
water ; and a method of constructing it near forges 
where the water has no fall, but is tranquil. 

4* 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

"6. A draw-bridge which may be closed and 
opened within the gates and walls. 

" 7. New machines for condensing and ex- 
hausting air by means of water. Also a new 
pump acting by water and mercury, without any 
siphon; which presents more advantages and 
works more easily than the common pumps. I 
have also, besides these, other new plans for 
pumps. 

" 8. A new construction of air-guns, thousands 
of which may be discharged in a moment by 
means of one siphon. 

" 9. A universal musical instrument, by means 
of which one who is quite unacquainted with 
music may execute all kinds of airs that are 
marked on paper by notes. 

" 10. Sciagraphia universalis. The universal 
art of delineating shades, or a mechanical method 
of delineating engravings of any kind upon any 
surface by means of fire. 

" II. A water-clock in which water serves the 
purpose of an index, and in which by the flow of 
water all the moveable bodies in the heavens are 
demonstrated, with other curious effects. 

"12. A mechanical carriage containing all 
42 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

sorts of works which arc set in motion by the 
movement of the horses. Also a flying carriage, 
or the possibility of remaining suspended in the 
air, and of being conveyed through it. 

"13. A method of ascertaining the desires 
and the affections of the minds of men by ana- 
lysis. 

" 14. New methods of constructing cords and 
springs, with their properties. 

"These are my mechanical inventions which 
were heretofore lying scattered on pieces of pa- 
per, but nearly all of which are now brought into 
order so that when opportunity offers they may 
be published. To all these there is added an alge- 
braic and a numeric calculation from which the 
proportions, motion, times, and all the properties 
which they ought to possess are deduced. More- 
over, all those things which I have in analysis and 
astronomy require each its own place and its own 
time. O how I wish, my beloved friend and bro- 
ther, that I could submit all these to your own 
eyes and to those of Professor Elfvius ! But as I 
cannot show you the actual machines, I will at least 
in a short time forward you the drawings, with 
which I am daily occupied. I have now time also 

43 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

to bring my poetical efforts into order. They are 
only a kind of fables, like those of Ovid, under 
cover of which those events are treated which 
have happened in Europe within the last fourteen 
or fifteen years ; so that in this manner I am al- 
lowed to sport with serious things, and to play 
with the heroes and the great men of our coun- 
try. But meanwhile I am affected with a certain 
sense of shame when I reflect that I have said so 
much about my plans and ideas, and have not yet 
exhibited anything: my journey and its inconven- 
iences have been the cause of this. I have now a 
great desire to return home to Sweden and to 
take in hand all Polheimer's inventions, make 
drawings, and furnish descriptions of them ; and 
also to test them by physics, mechanics, hydro- 
statics, and hydraulics, and likewise by algebraic 
calculus. I should prefer to publish them in Swe- 
den rather than in any other place, and in this 
manner to make a beginning among us of a So- 
ciety for Learning and Science, for which we 
have such an excellent foundation in Polheimer's 
inventions. I wish mine could serve the same 
purpose. ... A thousand remembrances to my 
sister Anna. I hope she is not alarmed at the 

44 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

approach of the Russians. I have a great long- 
ing to see little brother [nephew] Eric again ; 
perhaps he will be able to make a triangle, or 
to draw one for me, when I give him a little 
ruler/ ' 



Ill 

SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

Having concluded his studies abroad, Emanuel 
returned to the paternal home at Brunsbo in 
1 7 1 5 . Then his father, in accordance with the cus- 
tom of the times, made application to Government 
to give him employment. Meanwhile Emanuel 
makes preparation for the scientific periodical he 
had projected and seeks to bring into service 
some of his inventions, of which he writes to 
Benzelius — 

" I looked very carefully for the machines 
which I some time ago sent to my father ; they 
were eight in number, but I was unable to dis- 
cover the place in which he had laid them aside. 
He thinks they have been sent to you, which I 
hope with all my heart ; for it cost me a great 
amount of work to put them on paper, and I 
shall not have any time during the next winter to 
do this over again. There were, First, three draw- 
ings and plans for water-pumps, by which a large 
quantity of water can be raised in a short time 

46 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

from any sea or lake you choose. Second, two 
machines for raising weights by means of water, 
as easily and quickly as is done by mechanical 
forces. Third, some kinds of sluices, which can be 
constructed where there is no fall of water, and 
which will raise boats over hills, sand-banks, etc. 
Fourth, a machine to discharge by air ten or 
eleven thousand shots per hour. All these ma- 
chines are carefully described and calculated alge- 
braically. I had further intended to communi- 
cate plans of some kinds of vessels and boats, 
in which persons may go under water whenever 
they choose ; also a machine for building at 
pleasure a blast furnace near any still water, 
where the wheel will nevertheless revolve by 
means of the fire, which will put the water in 
motion ; likewise some kinds of air-guns that are 
loaded in a moment, and discharge sixty or 
seventy shots in succession without any fresh 
charge. Toward winter perhaps I shall draw and 
describe these machines. I should like to have 
the opportunity and the means of setting one or 
other of them up and getting it to work. 

" The day after to-morrow I will travel to the 
Kinnekulle, to select a spot for a small observa- 

47 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

tory, where I intend toward winter to make some 
observations respecting our horizon, and to lay a 
foundation for those observations by which my 
invention on the longitude of places may be con- 
firmed. Perhaps I may then travel in all haste 
first to Upsal, to get some things I need for it." 
At this time, having recently returned from 
France, in one letter to Benzelius he says, " Par- 
don, my dear brother, that I write to you in 
French. But the language in which you think 
usually suits you best. My thoughts at present 
move in this language ; but whenever Cicero shall 
again engage me, I shall endeavor to address you 
like a Ciceronian/ ' He was now much in confer- 
ence with the eminent Swedish engineer Polhei- 
mer — soon to be ennobled by Charles XII and 
given the name Polhem — and he urged the 
founding of a department of Mechanics in the 
university, in which both Polheimer and he him- 
self would have appointments. But his labors 
were bestowed chiefly on his scientific periodical, 
called Dcedalus, in which his own and Polhei- 
mer's inventions and discoveries were set forth 
in detail. On the 26th of June, 17 16, he writes 
to his brother Benzelius — 

48 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

" I am engaged on the subject which I intend 
for the last number of this year, and which I 
shall finish this week, namely, Polheimer's ideas 
upon the resistance of mediums, which at first 
were written down in Latin, and which have cost 
me a great deal of labor and mental exertion to 
reduce into such a form as will please the As- 
sessor and the learned ; likewise my method of 
finding the longitude of places, which I warrant 
to be certain and sure. I must hear what the 
learned say about it." 

On the 4th of September he writes again to 
the same — 

" I am very glad that Dczdahis, part iii, has 
appeared. I thank you for having taken so much 
trouble and care with it : when I am present with 
you, I will thank you still more. I am already 
thinking of the contents of part v of the Dceda- 
lus. I think it will be best for me, first, to put 
down Assessor Polheimer's ingenious tap, with 
a sufficient mechanic and algebraic description ; 
second, to make an addition to the description of 
his ' Blankstotz ' machine, as this is a work which 
requires greater accuracy, reflection, and consid- 
eration than it has yet received ; third, to leave 

49 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

room for some of the eclipses observed by Pro- 
fessor Elfvius, by which the longitude of Upsal 
is also obtained. If you would honor our little 
work with a life of Stiernhjelm, or with some- 
thing else from the history of the learned, I know 
that thereby our publication would become more 
interesting ; as in this case the heavy matter 
would be relieved by more pleasing subjects. I 
know also that this would gain us the favor and 
approbation of many, as the literary world acknow- 
ledges you as by far its best member ; I hope 
therefore that this honor will not be refused. 
May God grant you a long life, although I am 
afraid that your many studies will deprive us of 
this benefit, by shortening your days : for I know 
no one who has more consideration for his vari- 
ous studies, and less for himself. All the learned 
and the Muses entreat you to spare yourself, and 
in you the Muses. It is worthy of all praise in- 
deed to offer up one's self to the Muses, but not 
on the very altar ; it is easy enough to become a 
premature victim. Pardon this admonition, my 
brother ; your letter to my father is the cause of 
it. I hope that my little learning and my Dceda- 
/us will be long under your auspices. I think of 

5° 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

inserting in the fourth number some Daedalian 
speculations about a flying machine, and to leave 
room for Dr. Bromell's curiosities, if he be pleased 
to insert them. Assessor Polheimer writes that 
in the following number he wishes to insert such 
matter as will be of use to the public — such as 
water and wind machines, mill, etc. — of which I 
am very glad.' ' 

Charles XII had now returned to Sweden, to 
the great joy of his people, and found much use 
for both Polheimer and Swedenborg. In De- 
cember, 17 16, Swedenborg writes to Benzelius — 

" I wrote you a letter from Lund and should 
have written to you more frequently had I not 
been prevented by my mechanical and other 
occupations ; moreover I had enough to attend 
to in order to accomplish my design. Since his 
Majesty graciously looked at my Dcedalns and 
its plan, he has advanced me to the post of an 
Assessor Extraordinary in the College of Mines, 
yet in such a way that I should for some time 
attend the Councillor of Commerce, Polheimer. 
What pleases me most is that his Majesty pro- 
nounced so favorable and gracious a judgment 
respecting me, and himself defended me against 

Si 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

those who thought the worst of me ; and that he 
has since promised me his further favor and pro- 
tection, of which I have been assured both di- 
rectly and indirectly. But let me tell you all more 
in detail. After his Majesty had sufficiently in- 
quired as to my character, studies, and the like, 
and I being so fortunate as to have good refer- 
ences, he offered me three posts and offices to 
choose from, and afterward gave me the warrant 
for the rank and post of an Assessor Extraordi- 
nary. But as my enemies played too many in- 
trigues with the above-mentioned warrant and 
couched it in ambiguous terms, I sent it back to 
his Majesty with some comments, well knowing 
whom I had to depend upon ; when there was 
immediately granted me a new one, and likewise 
a gracious letter to the College of Mines. My 
opponent had to sit down at the King's own 
table and write this out in duplicate in two forms, 
of which the King selected the best ; so that 
those who had sought to injure me were glad to 
escape with honor and reputation, they had so 
nearly burned their fingers. 

" Dcedalus has enjoyed the favor of lying these 
three weeks upon his Majesty's table, and has 

52 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

furnished matter for many discussions and ques- 
tions ; it has also been shown by his Majesty to 
many persons. Within a short time I intend to 
send you what is to follow for Dcedalus, part v ; 
when perhaps Drs. Roberg and Bromell will not 
refuse to honor it with their contributions ; they 
might possibly derive some profit from it. 

"We arrived here at Carlscrona a few days 
ago, intending after three weeks to go to Gotten- 
burg, and afterward to Trollhatta, Lakes Wener 
and Hjelmar, and Gullspangelf, in order to ex- 
amine sites for sluices and locks, a plan which 
meets with his Majesty's entire approbation. 
... A thousand kind remembrances to sister 
Anna. The kid gloves have been purchased. " 

From these letters of what we may still call 
Swedenborg's youth, we learn better than from 
any description its exuberance, its energy, its 
assurance of mathematical power, its fertility of 
invention, and its strong desire to be employed 
in practical works for the good of mankind. 
Mingled with these traits it is pleasant to see 
the warm, confiding love that overflows to the 
brother and sister who had cared for and directed 
his budding manhood, and were still to him as 

53 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

father and mother. The traits are the natural 
ones of the time of life. What we specially ob- 
serve with Swedenborg is their vigor and power, 
eminent by inheritance, and conserved in remark- 
able degree by a freedom from all ignoble pas- 
sions and weak indulgence, which we can attri- 
bute only to the protection that came with a 
deep sense of duty to God and to man. His ap- 
pointment as Assessor in the College of Mines 
now gave him at twenty-eight years of age his 
eagerly sought opportunity for practical service 
to his country, happily in the line of his scien- 
tific and mechanical studies. This was the form 
of the appointment : — 

" Charles, by the grace of God, King of 
Sweden, Gothia, and Wendia, etc. Our especial 
favor and gracious pleasure, under God Almighty, 
to the true men and servants, to our Council and 
President, as well as Vice-President, and to all 
the Members of the College of Mines. Inasmuch 
as we have graciously deigned to command that 
Emanuel Swedberg shall be Assessor Extraordi- 
nary in the College of Mines, although he at the 
same time is to attend Polheimer, the Councillor 

54 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

of Commerce, and to be of assistance to him in 
his engineering works, and in carrying out his 
designs, — therefore it is our pleasure hereby to 
let you know this, with our gracious command, 
and that you allow him a seat and voice in the 
College whenever he be present, and especially 
whenever any business be brought forward per- 
taining to mechanics. We hereby commend you, 
especially and graciously, to God Almighty. 

" Carolus. 

"Lund, December 18, 171 6." 

The College of Mines consisted of a President, 
always of the highest order of nobility, two coun- 
cillors of mines, and some six assessors. Under 
its charge the whole mining interest of Sweden 
was placed. From its records it appears that on 
April 6, 1717, Mr. Emanuel Swedberg, appointed 
by his Majesty to be Assessor Extraordinary in 
the College of Mines, being present, " As a begin- 
ning of his introduction, the royal decree which 
had been received was read. Afterward the above- 
. named Assessor, after delivering to the Royal 
l College the formulary of the oath signed by him- 
self, took the oath of loyalty and of office, with 
/ 55 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

his hand upon the Book, and then took the seat 
belonging to him." 

With this simple, solemn induction into his 
office, Swedenborg entered upon his labors to 
which he gave strict attention, unremitted save 
on leave of his sovereign in the pursuit of his 
studies, for thirty years ; with what satisfaction 
to the College and to the Government we shall 
learn when we find him asking permission to re- 
tire. The office was a favorable one, demanding 
his best talent and energy, yet not so engrossing 
as to prevent his pursuing private studies. Ex- 
cept in the summer months, when the members 
of the College usually visited the mines, daily 
meetings were held in Stockholm, at which 
Swedenborg was punctual in attendance, when not 
in service elsewhere. For a while, however, by the 
command of Charles he was kept away in assist- 
ing Polhem — as Polheimer was called on being 
ennobled. Nor by the King's wish did he fail to 
continue his Dcedalns. On the 23d of February, 
17 17, he writes to Benzelius — 

" Enclosed I send Dcedalus, part v, and I 
most humbly solicit you to extend to it the kind- 
ness that you have shown toward the former 

56 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

numbers. I should have finished it long ago, but 
I have been continually on a journey of ever 
changing direction, which scarce left me an hour's 
time for such work. But as I have now arrived 
at Stiernsund, I have found an opportunity for a 
few days to get this up as well as I can. I hope 
it will win the approval of the Upsal people, and 
especially your own. 

" I have added the Latin to it on the opposite 
page, according to his Majesty's wish, who pointed 
out to me where the Swedish should be and where 
the Latin. . . . 

" As his Majesty seemed to be interested in 
the manufacture of salt in Sweden, we gathered 
minute information about it in Uddevalla ; and 
we found that in Sweden there are the best op- 
portunities for its manufacture, as there is abun- 
dance of forest and water for promoting the work. 
. . . Should such a work be established, it would 
profit the country more than the whole of its iron 
manufacture, in which a loss is occasionally sus- 
tained ; but in the case of salt there would be a 
real gain and the money would remain in the 
country. 

"We hope that our journey hither will in time 
57 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

be of importance. At Trollhatta, Gullspangelf, 
and Lake Hjelmar also, we found everything 
feasible, and at less expense than had been anti- 
cipated. If I do nothing more in the matter, I act 
at least as a stimulus in it. 

" Will you please remember me kindly to little 
brother Eric. I hear that his love for mechanics 
and drawing continues. If he can give the slip to 
his preceptor, I should like to induce him to fol- 
low me ; when I would try in every way to pro- 
mote his welfare, to instruct him in mathematics 
and other things, should it be desired. Please re- 
member me also a hundred times to sister Anna." 

The project referred to in this and a preceding 
letter, for which Swedenborg and Polhem had 
visited Trollhatta, was to connect the North and 
the Baltic seas by a canal, thus saving the long 
detour about the southern peninsula and the ex- 
posure to the hostile Danes, at Elsinore. It was 
a project of Bishop Brask in 1526, discovered by 
Benzelius and communicated by Swedenborg to 
Charles XII, who embraced it eagerly, but was 
prevented by death from completing it. As com- 
pleted in more recent times the canal follows in 
great part the course undertaken by Polhem and 

58 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

Swedenborg, and a disused portion still bears the 
name of Swedenborg, 

In January, 171 8, Swedenborg writes to Benze- 
lius declining his offer to seek for him the then 
vacated professorship of Astronomy at Upsal, for 
the reason that he had now full employment in 
more practical matters and in the study of me- 
chanics. He concludes, "I have five little treatises 
which I desire to lay before my friends; one, 
which I have finished to-day, is on the round par- 
ticles, in which Dr. Roberg will probably be in- 
terested, for he is well skilled in all that concerns 
these least things, and is delighted with such 
subjects." 

In these extracts from Swedenborg's letters, 
of which we have more at this period of his life 
than at any other, we copy without reserve what- 
ever seems to throw any light on his character and 
on the nature of his pursuits. The entire collection 
is to be found in Tafel's Documents, in which 
it makes one hundred and seventy octavo pages. 
During the publication of the Dcedalus, from 1 7 16 
to 1718, Swedenborg published little else. A small 
tract in Swedish on the tinware of Stiernsund, 
17 1 7, is attributed to him ; and it is probable that 

59 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

his Algebra, a i6mo of 135 pages, was printed 
in 1 7 18. Of works of this period in manuscript 
there are still preserved an essay on the Import- 
ance of Instituting an Astronomical Observatory 
in Sweden ; one on the Causes of Things ; a New 
Theory concerning the End of the Earth, in which 
he holds that the earth revolves in a resisting 
medium and is gradually retarding its motion and 
approaching the sun ; a Project for Assisting Com- 
merce and Manufactures, by controlling the ex- 
port of Swedish iron and copper ; a Memorial on 
the Establishment of Salt-works in Sweden ; an 
Essay on the Nature of Fire and Colors ; and some 
discussions of higher mathematics, involving the 
Differential and Integral Calculus. Of the direc- 
tion of his studies at this time, the following letter 
to Benzelius, written 30th January, 17 18, gives 
further information : — 

" I send you something new in physics, on the 
particles of air and water, proving them to be 
round, which may militate against the philosophy 
of many; but as I base my theory upon expert 
ence and geometry, I do not expect that any one 
can refute it by arguments. Preconceived ideas 
received from Descartes and others will be the 

60 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

greatest obstacle to it, and will cause objections. 
Dr. Roberg, who in everything that is minute 
and subtile is himself subtile, is best able to 
judge respecting it : if you would therefore be kind 
enough to leave this with him, I should like to 
hear his opinion. If Professor Valerius would lay 
aside his own and his father's Cartesianism, his 
opinion would also be valuable to me. I have ma- 
terials enough on this subject to fill a large book, 
as is done by the learned with their speculations 
abroad ; but as we have no appliances here for 
such large publications, I must cut my coat ac- 
cording to the cloth and introduce only the most 
general views. The use of this seems to me to 
enable us to investigate more thoroughly the na- 
ture of air and water in all its parts : for if the true 
shape of the particles is once discovered, we obtain 
with it all the properties which belong to such a 
shape. I hope that this rests on a solid founda- 
tion. In future I should not wish to publish any- 
thing which has not better ground to rest upon 
than the former things in the Dcedalus." 

In the summer of the same year by the King's 
command he was engaged in the construction 
of the above-mentioned Baltic and North Sea 

61 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

canal. In September he writes to his brother-in- 
law — 

" I found his Majesty most gracious toward 
me, much more so than I had any reason to 
expect, which I regard as a good omen. Count 
Morner also showed me all the favor that I could 
wish. 

" Every day I had some mathematical matters 
for his Majesty, who deigned to be pleased with 
all of them. When the eclipse took place, I took 
his Majesty out to see it, and talked much to him 
about it. This, however, is a mere beginning. I 
hope in time to be able to do something in this 
quarter for the advancement of science, but I do 
not wish to bring anything forward now except 
what is of immediate use. His majesty found con- 
siderable fault with me for not having continued 
my Dcedalus ; but I pleaded want of means, of 
which he does not like to hear. I expect some 
assistance for it very soon. 

" With respect to brother Esberg [a nephew 
of Benzelius], I will see that he gets some em- 
ployment at the locks ; but nothing can be done 
before next spring. If he meanwhile studies 
mathematics well and begins to make models, it 

62 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

will be perhaps of use to him. I wish very much 
that little brother Ericus was grown up. I believe 
that next spring, if everything remain as it is, I 
shall begin the building of a lock myself and shall 
have my own command ; in which case I hope to 
be of service to one or the other. I receive only 
three dalers a day at present at the canal works, 
but I hope soon to receive more. 

"Polhem's eldest daughter is betrothed to a 
chamberlain of the King, of the name of Mander- 
strom. I wonder what people will say about this, 
inasmuch as she was engaged [by her father] to 
me. His second daughter is in my opinion much 
prettier. 

" How is Professor Valerius ? I should be very 
glad to hear of his health and good condition. 
Remember me to sister Anna." 

Polhem's second daughter, Emerentia, was 
young at this time, not quite sixteen, and did not, 
it would appear, reciprocate Swedenborg's tender 
feeling. Her father, it is said, gave him a written 
claim upon her in the future, in the hope that 
she would become more yielding, and this con- 
tract she was obliged to sign. But she fretted 
about it so much every day that her brother was 

(>3 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

moved with compassion and purloined the con- 
tract from Swedenborg, whose only comfort con- 
sisted in daily perusing it, and who therefore 
quickly missed his treasure. His sorrow at his 
loss was so evident that her father insisted on 
knowing the cause ; and on learning it, was will- 
ing by an exercise of his authority to have the 
lost document restored. But when Swedenborg 
himself saw her grief, he voluntarily relinquished 
his right and left the house with, it is said, a 
solemn vow never to fix his affections on any 
woman again. However this may have been, it is 
certain that he never married and that he never 
forgot his first love. What called Swedenborg to 
Stromstadt he does not explain. But from other 
sources we learn that he was engaged in super- 
intending the transportation of two galleys, five 
large boats, and a sloop seventeen miles overland, 
from Stromstadt to Iderfjol, for the aid of Charles 
XII in his operations against Frederickshall. 
Baron Sandels in his eulogy gives the credit of 
the feat to Swedenborg, and in fact we have seen 
that several years before he had drawn out plans 
for such transportation ; but we do not know 
whether the plan adopted was his or Polhem's. 

64 






SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

In October of the same year, 171 8, he writes 
again from his father's home at Brunsbo — 

" Most honored and dear brother \ — I am just 
starting for Carlsgraf , after having been here about 
three weeks. Meanwhile I have seen Dcedalus, 
part vi, through the press. It contains the fol- 
lowing articles: 1. Directions for Pointing Mor- 
tars, by C. Polhem ; 2. An Easy Way of Counting 
Balls which are Stored in the Shape of a Triangle, 
by Em. S ; 3. Useful Directions in Ship- 
Building ; 4. A Proof that our Vital Nature con- 
sists of Small Tremulations, with a great Number 
of Experiments ; 5 . Respecting a Curve the Secant 
of which forms Right Angles with it. I have sent 
this, the figures and letter-press, to his Majesty. 
As soon as I have an opportunity I will send it 
over to you." 

The close of this year, 17 18, was the close of 
the life of Charles XII, killed on his expedition to 
Norway, and the end of his important projects. 
It is a year later when we hear again from Swe- 
denborg, writing from Stockholm to Benzelius — 

"What I have in hand consists, first, of a 
minute description of our Swedish blast-furnaces ; 

65 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

secondly, of a theory or an investigation into the 
nature of fire and stoves, in which I have col- 
lected everything I could gather from black- 
smiths, charcoal-burners, roasters of ore, superin- 
tendents of iron-furnaces, etc. ; and upon this 
the theory is based. I hope that the many dis- 
coveries which I have made therein will in time 
prove useful. For instance, a fire may be made 
in some new stoves for warming, where the 
wood and coal which usually last a day will last 
six days, and will give out more heat. Vice- 
President Hjarne has approved of this in all its 
particulars, and if desired I can show the proof 
of it. The former of these treatises I handed in 
to-day to the Royal College of Mines. 

" I have also written a little anatomy of our 
vital forces, which, I maintain, consist of tremula- 
tions. For this purpose I made myself thoroughly 
acquainted with the anatomy of the nerves and 
membranes ; and I have proved the harmony 
which exists between that and the interesting 
geometry of tremulations — together with many 
other ideas in which I found that I agreed with 
those of Baglivius. The day before yesterday I 
handed them in to the Royal Medical College. 

66 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

" Besides this, I have improved the little trea- 
tise which was published at Upsal about the 
high water in primeval times ; and I have added 
a number of clear proofs, together with an unde- 
niable demonstration how stones were moved in 
a deep ocean. I have also adduced arguments to 
show how the northern horizon was changed, 
and that it is reasonable to suppose that Sweden 
in the primeval ages was an island. This I have 
handed in to the Censor of Books, so as to pub- 
lish it anew. There is also quite a number of 
smaller papers. The deep study by which I have 
endeavored to compass these subjects has caused 
me to look with contempt upon everything I 
have heretofore published ; but I intend to im- 
prove them very much when they are to be trans- 
lated [from Swedish into French or Latin]. . . . 

" With much love, I remain your most faithful 
servant, Eman. Swedenborg." 

This is the first letter we have in which Swe- 
denborg assumes the new name which had been 
given in June to the wife and children of Bishop 
Swedberg, with admission to the equestrian order 
of the nobility, and so to a seat in the Diet — 

67 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

an honor granted by the new Queen, Ulrica 
Eleonora, younger sister of Charles XII, out of 
the friendly regard she had always shown for the 
independent clergyman, and in return perhaps 
for his support of the royal power. 

The essays here referred to are still preserved, 
but most of their subjects were afterward treated 
at much greater length. In the till then little 
explored field of geology Swedenborg's study of 
the mines of Sweden gave him eagerly grasped 
opportunity, and as in everything else, though 
not making it a specialty, he carried his observa- 
tions and conclusions far ahead of his time. Prof. 
Alfred G. Nathorst in his " Geology of Sweden,' ' 
1892, credits Swedenborg with being the first to 
conclude from various observations that Sweden 
was formerly covered with the sea, a large part 
of its rocks having been formed of marine de- 
posits. He says — 

"As a whole it may be regarded as distinctive 
of Swedenborg' s method of demonstration that 
where possible he seeks to confirm the correct- 
ness of his position by means of experiment. 
He may therefore be regarded as one of the first 
in the field of experimental geology. . . . [Quite 

68 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

in accordance with most modern conclusion] he 
denies that the whole interior of the earth is in a 
glowing state, and thinks that the volcanoes re- 
ceive their nourishment from melted masses in 
the earth's crust. " x 

Three weeks later, Swedenborg writes again to 
Benzelius, " I am delighted to hear that what I 
wrote you in my last was to your liking/ ' He 
adds some further argument to show that no 
sudden approach to the sun is taking place. Inci- 
dentally he brings in his theory of the vortical 
energy which controls the solar system, and also 
each world in itself, but in too brief terms to be 
cited as a statement of the theory. At greater 
length he gives reasons for thinking that the sun 
cannot be, as some had conjectured, the abode 
of the damned. He would rather suspect that 
there is the abode of the blessed ; since from the 
sun is all the heat, light, and life of the world, 
indeed the most refined elements of existence, 
where we might look for that which is above and 
within matter, and might even imagine the seat 
of God Himself. 

1 Letter of Alfred H. Stroh, May 31, 1903, in The New 
Philosophy. 

69 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Here we have a ready basis for Swedenborg's 
later understanding that God is in the Sun of 
heaven, and that through this Sun He sends life 
and force into the sun of this world, for the 
support of material existence. As to the fires of 
the damned, he suggests that the pain of burning 
is the effect of destruction of tissue, which can- 
not be what is meant in the Bible ; but rather 
he thinks the remorses of conscience might be 
a sufficiently strong fire. In this, too, he is ap- 
proaching the doctrine he afterward taught, that 
the fires of hell are the fires of selfish passion. 
But he piously concludes, " I hope that my phi- 
losophizing may not be misinterpreted ; for, after 
all, the foundation is God's Word/' 

On the i st of December he writes again — 

"Most honored and dearest brother y — I send 
you herewith the little work which I mentioned in 
my last respecting a decimal system in our coin- 
age and measures. This is the last that I will pub- 
lish myself, because every-day and home affairs 
grow of small account, and because I have already 
worked myself poor by them. I have been sing- 
ing long enough ; let us see whether any one 

70 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

will come forward and hand me some bread in 
return. 

"There are, however, some plans which I have 
entertained for some time, and which at last 
have assumed a definite shape. I should like to 
see how far they meet with your approval : First, 
to translate what I have published into Latin or 
French, and to send it then to Holland and Eng- 
land ; to which I should like to add, by way of 
improvement, some of my discoveries about fire 
and stones, and about some improvements in 
mining matters ; besides some other papers which 
are not yet printed. Would you be kind enough 
to give the names of some who write scientific 
papers and memoirs ? Second, as I think I now 
in some measure understand the mechanics which 
are of use in mining districts and in mines, so far 
at least as to be able better than any one else to 
describe what is new and old there, and further 
to understand the theory of fire and stones, as to 
which I have made quite a number of discoveries, 
I intend to spend all my remaining time upon what 
may promote everything that concerns mining, 
and on the basis which has already been laid, in 
collecting as much information as possible. Third, 

7* 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

if fortune so favors me that I shall be provided 
with all the means that are required, and if mean- 
while by the above preparations and communica- 
tions I shall have gained some credit abroad, I 
should prefer by all means to go abroad and seek 
my fortune in my calling, which consists in pro- 
moting everything that concerns the administra- 
tion and working of mines. For he is nothing 
short of a fool who is independent and at liberty 
to do as he pleases and sees an opportunity for 
himself abroad and yet remains at home in dark- 
ness and cold, where the Furies, Envy, and Pluto 
have taken up their abode and dispose the rewards, 
and where labors such as I have performed are 
rewarded with misery. The only thing I would 
desire until that time comes is bene latere, to find 
a sequestered place where I can live secluded from 
the world. I think I may find such a corner in 
the end either at Starbo or at Skinskatteberg. 
But as this would take four or five years' time, 
I am quite ready to acknowledge that long-laid 
plans are like long roofs, apt to tumble in ; for 
man proposes, God disposes. Still I have always 
been in favor of a man's knowing what he is doing, 
and of his forming for himself some clever plan 

72 



SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AT HOME 

of what it is most practicable for him to carry 
out in his life. I remain, most honored and dear 
brother, 

" Your most faithful servant and brother, 
" Eman. Swedenborg." 

The last letter to Benzelius preserved for us 
containing much information about his studies, 
is dated May 2, 1720 — 

" I am at present engaged in examining all the 
chemistry contained in the treasury of the Sude- 
man Library, which belongs now to Hesselius ; 
for I have proposed to myself to examine thor- 
oughly everything that concerns fire and metals, 
a prirnis t7icunabulis usque ad maturitatem^ ac- 
cording to the plan of the memorandum which 
has been already communicated to you. I take the 
chemical experiments of Boyle, Reucher, Hjarne, 
Simons, and others, and trace out nature in its 
least things, instituting comparisons with geome- 
try and mechanics. I am also encouraged every 
day by new discoveries as to the nature of these 
subtile substances; and as I am beginning to 
see that experience in an uninterrupted series 
seems to be inclined to agree therewith, I am be- 

73 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

coming more and more confirmed in my ideas. 
It seems to me that the immense number of ex- 
periments that have been made affords a good 
ground for building upon ; and that the toil and 
expenses incurred by others may be turned to use 
by working up with head what they have collected 
with their hands. Many deductions may thus be 
made which will be of use in chemistry and metal- 
lurgy, and in determining the nature of fire and 
other things." 



IV . 

FURTHER STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

As Assessor Extraordinary Swedenborg re- 
ceived no salary except when in actual service, of 
which little was required after the death of Charles 
XII; and accordingly in June, 1720, he presented 
a petition to the Royal College of Mines stating 
that he had spent all his time and money in per- 
fecting himself in what would be of service to his 
country, and therefore begging the College gra- 
ciously to provide him with some salary or other 
support by virtue of his appointment. A year 
later he wrote to the President and College — 

" As I am about to undertake a new journey 
abroad, it is my duty to make it known to your 
Excellency and to the Honorable College in writ- 
ing; especially as my only object is to collect 
more minute information respecting the condition 
of the mines abroad and the processes which are 
followed there, and also to make inquiries respect- 
ing commerce, so far as it relates to metals." 

75 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Of this visit abroad we have the following sum- 
mary from his Itinerary : — 

"In the spring of 1721 I again went abroad, 
going to Holland by Copenhagen and Hamburg. 
There I published my Prodromus Principiorum 
Rerum Naturalium, and several other short trea- 
tises in octavo. From Holland I travelled to Aix- 
la-Chapelle, Liege, Cologne, and other adjacent 
places, examining the mines there. Thence I 
went to Leipsic, where I published my Miscel- 
lanea Observata. Leaving that town I visited all 
the mines in Saxony, and then returned to Ham- 
burg From Hamburg I returned to Brunswick 
and Goslar, and visited all the mines in the Hartz 
Mountains belonging to the houses of Hanover 
and Llineburg. The father-in-law of a son of the 
Emperor and of a son of the Czar, Duke Louis 
Rudolph, who resided at Blankenburg, graciously 
defrayed all my expenses ; and on taking leave 
of him he presented me with a gold medal and 
a large silver coffee-pot, besides bestowing upon 
me many other marks of his favor. I then re- 
turned to Hamburg, and thence, by way of Stral- 
sund and Ystad, to Stockholm, having been ab- 
sent one year and three months.' ' 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

The two Latin treatises, the publication of 
which is here briefly mentioned, have been trans- 
lated and published in London under the respec- 
tive titles of " Some Specimens of a Work on the 
Principles of Chemistry/' and " Miscellaneous Ob- 
servations connected with the Physical Sciences." 
In the first-named volume are included also three 
other publications of Swedenborg, of the same 
year, New Observations and Discoveries respect- 
ing Iron and Fire ; ANew Method of Finding the 
Longitudes of Places ; and A New Method of Con- 
structing Docks and Dykes. These essays give 
a fair specimen of Swedenborg's manner of treat- 
ing scientific subjects. He first collects the obser- 
vations and experiments of others, adding a few 
of his own, and then, with geometry for a guide, 
searches for the hidden causes and operations of 
nature. His theory of matter, as well summarized 
by one of his ablest translators, Dr. J.J. Garth 
Wilkinson, is " that roundness is the form adapted 
to motion ; that the particles of fluids, and speci- 
fically of water, are round, hollow spherules, with 
a subtile matter, identical with ether or caloric, 
in their interiors and interstices ; that the crust, 
or crustal portion, of each particle is itself formed 

77 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

of lesser particles, and these again of lesser, and so 
forth — water being in this way the sixth dimen- 
sion, or the result of the sixth grouping of the 
particles ; that the interstices of the fluids fur- 
nish the original moulds of the solids, and the 
rows of crustal particles forced off one by one 
by various agencies, furnish the matter of the 
same ; that after solid particles are thus cast in 
their appropriate moulds, their fracture, aggre- 
gation, the filling-in of their pores and inter- 
stices by lesser particles, and a number of other 
and accidental conditions, provide the units of 
the multiform substances of which the mineral 
kingdom is composed. According to this theory, 
then, there is but one substance in the world, 
namely, the first ; the difference of things is 
difference of form; there are no positive, but 
only relative, atoms; no metaphysical, but only 
real elements ; moreover, the heights of chemical 
doctrine can be scaled by rational induction alone, 
planted on the basis of analysis, synthesis, and 
observation. " 

To the above may be added that Swedenborg's 
crustal particles bear to the interior and intersti- 
tial space the ratio in volume of one to two, and 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

in weight that of eight to one — a coincidence 
with the ratios of the later discovered elements 
that is highly suggestive. Dumas, in his Chemi- 
cal Philosophy, remarks of Swedenborg, " It is 
then to him we are indebted for the first idea of 
making cubes, tetraedrons, pyramids, and the dif- 
ferent crystalline forms, by grouping the spheres." 

At the same time with these deep investiga- 
tions he was also engaged with all earnestness in 
promoting the working of mines and metals, and 
on his return home he attempted to introduce 
an entirely new method of reducing copper ore, 
as described in his treatise on Copper published 
twelve years later. In the spring of 1723, though 
not yet an Ordinary Assessor, he became a regular 
attendant at the sittings of the College, except 
when abroad or engaged in the sessions of the Diet, 
of which by the ennoblement of the family he 
now became member. In place of speeches at the 
Diet, none of w r hich have been preserved, we have 
memorials presented by him not without interest 
at the present day. The following was perhaps 
his first address, read to the Diet, February 7, 
1723: — 

"The chief cause of a country's increase in 
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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

wealth is the balance of commerce : if its imports 
are greater than a country can pay with its own 
products, it follows that it loses annually consider- 
able sums by leaving them in the hands of foreign 
nations ; besides, it diminishes the capital which 
it collected under more favorable circumstances, 
and which it should hand down to posterity. As 
soon also as a country by an imprudent course 
suddenly falls into poverty, it unavoidably sinks in 
the estimation of other nations, and they refuse 
any longer to trade with it, although in former 
times they may have enriched themselves by its 
wealth and sucked out its substance and marrow. 
Yea, more serious consequences still may ensue ; 
for unless a watchful eye is kept on the balance of 
a country's trade, a general want may be caused 
thereby which makes itself felt in the private 
circumstances of every one; fortunes and pos- 
sessions in the land are diminished in value ; no 
means are forthcoming for the support of the 
navy and army ; the defence of the country be- 
comes weak and impotent; the public servants 
must be satisfied with small salaries ; manufac- 
tures and agriculture together with all the moneys 
invested in them depreciate in value ; besides other 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

contingencies which in such a case overtake the 
higher as well as the lower ranks, and especially 
the business men, who must suffer most heavily 
from it." 

He then presents two computations : the first 
showing the average imports and exports during 
the reign of Charles XI, when Swedish com- 
merce was most flourishing ; and the second show- 
ing the balance of trade at the time of the me- 
morial. In the first case the balance of exports 
was four and a half million florins in favor of 
Sweden, and in the second case the balance was 
from two and a half to three millions against the 
country. " From which," he says, " it follows that 
the rich products of Sweden are no longer suffi- 
cient to pay the excess of imported goods and 
merchandise, but that annually a part of the cash 
property of the country has to be employed to ad- 
just the difference. . . . As every one now is left 
in freedom to express his well-meant thoughts, 
and to suggest how the common weal is likely to 
be best helped, it is hoped that it will not be un- 
favorably received if I insist, in all humility, that 
there is nothing the present Diet can do of greater 
importance than to examine and to assist and pro- 

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

mote all propositions which have for their purpose 
to infuse new life into Swedish commerce, so as 
to make our balance even ; and this for the sake 
of the private welfare of every one of us and also 
for that of our whole posterity." Next he shows 
that Sweden has lost^ first, the revenues formerly 
derived from various provinces that have been 
conquered by Russia and Denmark ; second, the 
freighting business which she formerly enjoyed, 
but which during her wars and by the decay of 
her shipping has gone into foreign hands ; third, 
her former profitable commerce with the now lost 
provinces. Finally, he points out Swedish iron and 
copper mining interests as the most important in 
the balance of trade, and most worthy of atten- 
tion, and concludes with recommending careful 
inquiry how the mercantile marine may be built 
up, unnecessary importation checked or cheap- 
ened, and domestic manufactures developed and 
protected. 

On the 1 8th of the same month Swedenborg 
memorializes the Diet against the rule and law of 
the country which requires the mining of a baser 
metal to give way to that of a more noble, even 
when, as he shows, the fining of the baser by 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

its greater abundance may be many-fold more 
valuable. 

In the following May he had occasion to pre- 
sent another and longer memorial to the same 
purport, in consequence of instructions given by 
the Diet to the Royal College of Mines to pay 
special attention to the mining of silver and cop- 
per. He showed that the yearly production of iron 
in Sweden was equivalent to fifty tons of gold, 
and that of copper was equivalent to less than fif- 
teen tons. While then he would have the copper 
mines cherished and protected, he would not have 
it done at the expense of the iron mines. Yet he 
seems to have been opposed in these common- 
sense views by his own colleagues of the Royal 
College of Mines, on what ground we do not know. 

About the same time he presented another 
memorial to the Diet, setting forth the fact that 
Swedish iron was then exported in pigs to Hol- 
land, whence it was re-shipped inland to Liege 
and Sauerland, where it was puddled and rolled 
into bar or sheet iron, then carried back to Holland 
and exported at great profit to various countries. 
This profit, he declares, with small expense and 
industry might be kept at home. He accompanies 

83 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

his memorial with drawings and details of the 
puddling furnaces and rolling-mills abroad, and 
simply submits the expediency of encouragement 
by the Government to those who will undertake 
the manufacture in Sweden. 

The treatment which this eminently reasonable 
and practical memorial received at the hands of 
the Diet and the Royal College of Mines goes far 
to convince us that Swedenborg had reason to 
complain of the want of response to his genius 
in his own country and home. The memorial was 
read before the Committee on the business of the 
Diet, April 20, 1723 ; by them it was referred to 
the Committee on Mining and Commerce, where 
it was read May 7th. By the Diet it was referred 
to the King, by whom it was submitted to the 
Royal College of Mines and to that of Commerce, 
Aug. 10, 1725. It arrived in the Royal College 
of Mines, Aug. 23, 1725, and was filed for future 
reference, Sept. 1, 1726. In the course of three 
years and a half, a matter which would properly 
have commended itself for instant action is filed 
away for future reference ! So slow were the 
Swedes to manufacture the Swedes iron, now in 
demand throughout the world. 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

On the 15th of July, 1724, a Royal warrant 
was issued by King Frederick appointing the well- 
born Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg a regular 
Assessor in the Royal College, with a salary of 
eight hundred dalers ■ in silver. This was not the 
full salary of the office, which was twelve hundred 
dalers, but was increased to it six years later. Of 
the following ten years employed in public duties 
we have no details, but know from his later pub- 
lications that together with his official duties 
Swedenborg was diligently pursuing the course 
of study he had adopted. Early in the year 1733 
he asked from the King leave of absence for 
nine months, in which to go to Germany and see 
through the press his great work entitled as a 
whole, Opera Philosophica et Mineralia. Of this 
there were three noble folio volumes, printed at 
the expense of his friend the Duke of Brunswick. 
The first volume had the special title of Principia 
Rerum Natiiralium, or First Principles of Natu- 
ral Things ; the other two treated of the working 
of iron and copper. Of the Principia its Eng- 
lish translator, the Reverend Augustus Clissold, 
says — 

1 About $450. 

85 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

" The First Part treats of the origin and laws 
of motion, and is mostly devoted to the consider- 
ation of its first principles ; which are investigated 
philosophically, then geometrically, their existence 
being traced from a first natural point down to 
the formation of a solar vortex, and afterwards 
from the solar vortex to the successive constitu- 
tion of the elements and of the three kingdoms 
of nature. From the first element to the last com- 
pound, it is the author's object to show that effort 
or conatus to motion tends to a spiral figure ; and 
that there is an actual motion of particles consti- 
tuting a solar chaos, which is spiral and conse- 
quently vortical. 

" In the Second Part the author applies this 
theory of vortical motion to the phenomena of 
magnetism, by which on the one hand he endeav- 
ors to test the truth of his principles, and on the 
other by application of the principles to explain 
the phenomena of magnetism ; the motion of the 
magnetical effluvia being as in the former case 
considered to be vortical. 

" In the Third Part the author applies the same 
principles of motion to Cosmogony, including the 
origination of the planetary bodies from the sun, 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

and their vortical revolutions until they arrived 
at their present orbit ; likewise to the constitution 
and laws of the different elements, the motions 
of all which are alleged to be vortical ; likewise to 
the constitution and laws of the three kingdoms 
of nature, the animal, vegetable, and mineral : so 
that the entire Principia aims to establish a true 
theory of the vortices, founded upon a true system 
of corpuscular philosophy,' ' 

The Principia is too deeply mathematical and 
reasoned with too subtile intuition for common 
readers to follow. For this reason, in part, it has 
been neglected by later scientists ; but also be- 
cause they with more perfect instruments have 
devoted their attention chiefly to experimental 
observation. For a century the atomic theory suf- 
ficed them, but now they are going far deeper and 
are closely approximating Swedenborg's theory of 
matter as compounded of first finites — as he 
calls them — in intense vortical motion. Not that 
this theory was originated by him. It was held in 
a way by the old Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras, 
and was revived by Descartes. But Swedenborg 
elaborated it beyond his predecessors, and beyond 
our ability to follow. To him also is now ascribed 

87 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

the nebular theory of the solar system, and the 
position of this system in the visible universe. In 
his Principia is to be found an elaborate, and, we 
are persuaded, true theory of phenomena of light 
and of electricity or magnetism, with calculation 
of coming variations of the magnetic needle for a 
century. We are not at the end of his philosophic 
and inventive anticipations, the correctness of 
which may serve to give confidence that even in 
these pursuits Swedenborg was being led in the 
path of truth. But after he found himself engaged 
in his true mission of unfolding the genuine 
meaning of the Scriptures, he made no attempt to 
display his discoveries in science or philosophy, 
regarding all the insight he had obtained into the 
mysteries of creation as a training and basis for 
understanding the mysteries of the Divine provi- 
dence in the care of human souls. 

Of the other two volumes of the Opera Philo- 
sophica et Miner alia, on Iron and on Copper, there 
is little to be said of general interest, since they 
are practical treatises on the mining and working 
of these metals. In his own preface Swedenborg 
says — 

" I intend to distribute the treatise upon each 
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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

metal, as here upon iron, into three divisions. 
The first division will comprise in particular 
the processes and methods of smelting that are 
in use in various parts of Europe ; and as the 
methods in vogue in Sweden have come more 
under my own observation than those employed 
in other countries, so I dwell upon them longer 
in proportion. The second division will give the 
various methods of assaying ; by which the ore is 
tried in small fires, or assaying furnaces, and its 
composition examined, in order that it may be 
the better proceeded with on a large scale. The 
third division will embrace an account of all the 
different chemical processes that have fallen 
under my notice, with the characteristics of each ; 
and will deliver numerous experiments and ob- 
servations which have been made on one and the 
same metal in the course of solution, crystalliza- 
tion, precipitation, and other chemical changes. " 
The great learning and practical value of the 
volumes on metallurgy was at once admitted. The 
Academy of Sciences at Paris translated and 
published the treatise on Iron. In England the 
work was cited as of the highest authority. In 
Russia its author was elected corresponding mem- 

89 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

ber of the Imperial Academy of Sciences ; and at 
home he became Fellow of the Royal Academy 
of Sciences. Fifty years after its publication, on 
the report of a commission to the unfortunate 
Louis XV, that there did not yet exist any theory 
of the magnet, the Marquis de Thome responded 
indignantly and at length, declaring that the 
Opera Philosophica of Swedenborg was held in 
high esteem in all Europe, and that the most 
celebrated men " had not disdained to draw ma- 
terials from it to assist them in their labors ; " 
that "the theory of the Swedish author is a true 
theory of the magnet, and of all magnetism ; " 
and that M. Camus, who performed such surpris- 
ing things with the magnet before their eyes, 
admitted that he had " derived from this author 
almost all the knowledge he exhibited on the 
subject." To this we may add that some prac- 
tical electricians of the present day are finding 
in this theory explanations of results which they 
do not find explained by any other. 

For completing the publication of the Opera 
Mineralia et Philosophica Swedenborg obtained 
an extension of his leave of absence, but in July, 
1734, was in his seat again, examining candidates 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

for the post of Assay Master, and was constant 
in attendance till the middle of January, 1736, 
when he requested the Royal leave to attend the 
burial of his father in West Gothland. But these 
practical duties of the College of Mines could not 
long satisfy his aspirations for the advancement 
of human knowledge, and in the following May 
he again petitioned King Frederic to grant him 
three or four years' leave of absence, on half pay, 
for the elaboration and publishing of works he had 
undertaken requiring " long and deep thought and 
a mind unencumbered with cares and troubles." 
This request was referred by the King to the 
Royal College and received its approval, where- 
upon Swedenborg thanked the College, and espe- 
cially for the continuance of half his salary "in 
consideration partly of the well-intentioned and 
useful design I have in view, and partly because 
I have been an Assessor in the Royal College 
for twenty years. It will both cheer me on and 
be an assistance in my proposed undertaking, 
which will be sufficiently expensive." 

On the 3d of July he took his leave of their 
Majesties, who were very gracious, and on the 
10th of the Royal College, to which he did not 

91 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

return till November, 1740. Proceeding to Ham- 
burg he called on Pastor Christopher Wolf with 
letters from Benzelius, as we learn from a letter 
of Wolfs to Benzelius, dated Sept. 1, 1736 : — 

" I received recently your most welcome let- 
ter, which was handed to me by your relative, the 
most noble Swedenborg, who was known to me 
by name already. I value his most celebrated 
work in mineralogy so much the more, because 
in the present age scarcely any one can be com- 
pared with this most excellent and clear-headed 
man in this department." 

Of this and other journeys and sojourns in 
foreign lands we have many notes of his own 
hand, mentioning places, persons, churches, and 
libraries visited, with interesting comments on 
the manners and customs of the people, and with 
an occasional remark on what he then had in 
hand. It was no longer metallurgy and the ma- 
terial elements that he was studying, but man — 
body, mind, and soul — and his relation to the 
Supreme Being. For some years he had given 
close attention to the study of Anatomy, and to 
this he now devoted several years' labor, yet with 
the soul always in view. Already in September 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

in Paris he notes, " I made the first draught of 
the introduction to my new treatise [Economy 
of the Animal Kingdom], namely, that the soul 
of wisdom is the knowledge and acknowledg- 
ment of the Supreme Being." Here in Paris and 
in Italy he found the best opportunities for ana- 
tomical studies, and in Amsterdam for printing 
his GEconomia Regni Animalis, on the completion 
of which he returned home in November, 1740. 
This quarto volume of 582 pages represents, 
however, but a small part of the author's labors 
during these four years Very much more is con- 
tained in the great pile of notes, observations, 
and deductions which he brought home in manu- 
script, from which important treatises have since 
been and are still being published. 

Not simple phenomena, but their hidden causes 
Swedenborg was always seeking. The philosophy 
of his century was leading to negative results, 
to disbelief in the power of reason to conclude 
anything in regard to the Divine Being, however 
clear to moral sense may be His existence. Kant's 
results, as summed up by Lewes, are these : — 

" The attempt to demonstrate the existence of 
God is an impossible attempt. Reason is utterly 

93 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

incompetent to the task. The attempt to pene- 
trate the essence of things — to know things per 
se — to know nonmena — is also an impossible at- 
tempt. And yet that God exists, that the World 
exists, are irresistible convictions. There is an- 
other certitude, therefore, besides that derived 
from demonstration, and this is moral certitude, 
which is grounded upon belief. I cannot say, ' It 
is morally certain that God exists/ but I must 
say, ' I am morally certain that God exists/ "* 
Swedenborg himself wrote in his Principia — 
" When therefore the philosopher has arrived 
at the end of his studies, even supposing him to 
have acquired so complete a knowledge of all 
mundane things that nothing more remains for 
him to learn, he must there stop ; for he can 
never know the nature of the Infinite Being, of 
His Supreme Intelligence, Supreme Providence, 
Supreme Love, Supreme Justice, and other infi- 
nite attributes. He will therefore acknowledge 
that in respect to this supremely intelligent and 
wise Being his knowledge is nothing : he will 
hence most profoundly venerate Him with the 
utmost devotion of soul ; so that at the mere 
1 Lewes: History of Philosophy, ii, 518. 
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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

thought of Him his whole frame, or membranous 
and sensitive system, will awfully, yet sweetly 
tremble, from the inmost to the outermost prin- 
ciples of its being.' ' 

But in the same year with the Principia Swe- 
denborg had continued his investigation of the 
questions of his time in his Sketch of a Philo- 
sophical Argument on the Infinite and the Final 
Cause of Creation ; and on the Intercourse be- 
tween the Soul and the Body. In this essay his 
unswerving faith in Revelation is conspicuous all 
through, and with it a recognition of something 
higher than merely natural reason. In the Preface 
he says — 

" Philosophy if it be truly rational can never 
be contrary to Revelation. . . . The end of 
reason can be no other than that man may per- 
ceive the things that are revealed and those that 
are created : thus the rational cannot be contrary 
to the Divine, since the end why reason is given 
us is that we may be empowered to perceive that 
there is a God and to know that He is to be wor- 
shipped. If reason be the mean, endowed with 
the faculty and power of perceiving, and if the 
actual perception be the end, then the mean, in 

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

so far as it is correctly rational, cannot be re- 
pugnant to the end. The very mysteries that are 
above reason cannot be contrary to reason, al- 
though reason is unable to explain their grounds." 
Thus begins the first chapter : — 

" In order that we may be favored and happy 
in our endeavors, they must begin from the In- 
finite, or God, without whom no undertakings can 
attain a prosperous issue. He it is that bestows 
on all things their principles ; from whom all things 
finite took their ris'e ; from whom we have our 
souls, and by whom we live ; by whom we are at 
once mortals and immortals ; to whom in fine we 
owe everything. And as the soul was created by 
Him and added to the body, and reason to both, 
in order that the soul might be His, so our 
thoughts, whether we revolve them within, or 
utter them in words, or commit them to writing, 
must always be so directed as to have their begin- 
ning and end from Him; whereby the Deity may 
be present with gracious favor as the First and 
the Last, in either end as well as in the means." 

Then alluding to the desire of human reason 
to be convinced in order to accept theology, he 
shows at length the impossibility of the reason's 

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STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

concluding anything in regard to the nature of 
the Infinite, by comparison with the finite. But, 
not abandoning the matter so, he proceeds to in- 
quire as to the producing cause of what is finite, 
even of its first and least particular. Showing 
that it cannot have its existence of itself, nor of 
any other finite thing, since then the question 
would be removed but one step backward, he con- 
cludes that reason must admit an infinite pro- 
ducing cause. But of these there cannot be many, 
only One. Now taking this Infinite as the cause 
of all creation, he deduces the entire variety from 
the same Cause, in all its intricacy and order. 
Then citing examples of this order and intricate 
beauty — especially in ample detail from the con- 
struction and operation of the organs of the hu- 
man body — calling forth our admiration, he seeks 
to transfer this and transform it into adoration 
for the Deity. But this full acknowledgment, he 
admits, must come partly on self-evidence, spring- 
ing from the human soul, and partly as a con- 
sequence from the arguments adduced. 

"There is in fact," he says, "a tacit consent, 
or a tacit conclusion of the soul, to the being as 
well as to the infinity of God. This is dictated, I 

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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

say, partly by the soul in its own free essence, 
partly by the soul as instructed and advised by 
the diverse innumerable effects presented in the 
world. ... It cannot be denied that there is 
that in man as man, provided he enjoy the use 
of reason, which acknowledges an omnipotent 
God, an omnipresent and all-provident Deity ; it 
seems therefore to be innate, and to be a power 
or action of reason, when not on the one hand 
troubled too much by its own ideas, nor on the 
other hand too destitute of all cultivation and de- 
velopment. But we care not whether it be spon- 
taneous or the contrary, if it be admitted that 
there is no one living, provided he be not over or 
under rational, but acknowledges the existence 
of a Deity, however ignorant he be of the Divine 
nature. Hence it is that after man has exerted 
his powers and whetted his reason to find out 
this nature, he falls into strange darkness and 
ideal conclusions. He knows indeed that there is 
a Deity, that there is an omnipotence, but he has 
been unsuccessful in eliciting the nature of either 
from any dictates of reason. ... In truth man- 
kind is always desirous to imagine the qualities 
of God, to bring Him within the bounds of rea- 

9 8 



STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

son and rational ideas, and to finite and fix Him 
in something, by something, or to something. 
For this reason the above investigation has all 
along been the issue and offspring of reason and 
philosophy. And though the philosophers have 
heard that He is infinite, yet on behalf of poor 
reason, which is always bounded by finite limits, 
they imagine the infinite as finite, being unable 
to perceive at all apart from the finite. We now 
therefore see why reason has failed, and that the 
cause is the same in the common people as in 
the learned. " 

Proceeding then to point out in detail the errors 
of many theories, all of which are owing to the 
judging of the Infinite from the finite, he con- 
cludes that — 

" Beyond our finite sphere there are verily in- 
finities, to the knowledge of which it is useless 
to aspire, and which in the Infinite are infinitely 
many and can be known to no one but the Infinite. 
In order that these may in some measure be con- 
ceived by the soul introduced through faith into 
communion with the Infinite, it has pleased God 
to discover by Revelation much whereby the mind 
can finitely conceive and express Him : not how- 

99 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

ever that finite perceptions or expressions are 
similar or adequate to Him, but only that those 
made use of are not repugnant/' 

Returning to what has been granted, that the 
Infinite exists as the eause of the finite world, 
Swedenborg next questions whether or no there 
must be a nexus, or means of influence, between 
the Infinite and the finite. Showing by argument 
that a nexus is indispensable, he then shows that 
the nexus itself must be infinite, not finite. As- 
suming this to be within our knowledge by proof 
of reason, he asks whether if any one can tell us 
more about this nexus that shall agree with what 
we already know, we shall not listen to it. And 
then he alleges, what he says has been taught by 
Revelation, that this nexus is the Son of God, be- 
gotten from eternity, 1 to be the means of commu- 
nication from the Infinite with the finite. But, 
from what he has already shown, he declares this 
nexus itself to be infinite ; and as there cannot be 
two infinites, the nexus, or the Son of God, is none 
other than the Infinite, God Himself. 

1 This current theological expression was firmly repudiated 
in his later works, in which he recognized the Son as the 
Divine Presence in humanity, thus in time. 

IOO 



STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

"To say then," he continues, "that the finite 
came forth mediately through the Son, is exactly 
tantamount to saying that it came forth immedi- 
ately through the Father, or immediately through 
the Son ; since the Father and Son are alike the 
Infinite, and the Infinite is the immediate cause 
of the finite." Then showing that in creation 
there must be a Divine, or infinite, final end ; 
that this end is to be reached through the whole 
chain of creation, of which man is the last link, 
the crown of all, he declares that in man therefore 
for the fulfilment of the Divine end, there must be 
something that can partake of the Infinite : — 

"Not certainly in the fact that man is an ani- 
mal and has senses provided him to enjoy the 
delights of the world ; nor in the fact that he has 
a soul, for his soul is finite and can contain no- 
thing of the Infinite. Neither in reason, which is 
the effect of the cooperation between the soul 
and the body ; which, as they are both finite, so 
the effect of both is also finite : therefore it does 
not lie in reason. So far we find nothing Divine 
in man. Where is that, then, which appears to be 
nowhere, and yet is necessary to realize the Divine 
end? . . It lies in this, that man can acknowledge 

IOI 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

and does acknowledge God ; that he can believe 
and does believe that God is infinite ; that though 
he is ignorant of the nature of the Deity, yet he 
can acknowledge and does acknowledge His exist- 
ence, and this without the shadow of doubt. And 
especially does it consist in this further privilege, 
that by this undoubting faith he is sensible in love, 
or delight resulting from love, of a peculiar con- 
nection with the Infinite. But where he doubts, 
he does not acknowledge and the Divine is not in 
him. All Divine worship proceeds from this foun- 
tain of faith and love. . . . Thus the true divinity 
in man, who is the final effect in which the Divine 
end dwells, is none other than an acknowledgment 
of the existence and infinity of God . . . and a 
sense of delight in the love of God, although hu- 
man reason cannot do this of itself, inasmuch as 
man, with all his parts and his very soul, is finite ; 
notwithstanding which he may be a fit recipient, 
and as he is in the finite sphere he may concur to 
dispose himself for reception/ ' 

Now comes the crowning effort in this argu- 
ment. It being granted that the Divine sought 
this final return of creation to Itself, the question 
is asked, how it is to be secured through the va- 

I02 



STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

rious stages from first to last. The answer being 
given that it is to be secured by means of the 
soul, which from its altitude is designed to rule the 
body, it is asked by what means the true order is 
to be restored when, as must have been foreseen, 
the body refuses to obey the instincts of the 
soul and fails to serve its true purpose. And the 
triumphant answer is given that "God provided 
against this by His Infinite, only-begotten Son, 
who took on Him the ultimate effect of the world, 
or a manhood and a human shape, and thereby 
was infinite in and with the finite, and conse- 
quently restored the nexus in His own person 
between the Infinite and the finite, so that the pri- 
mary end was realized. . . . The Infinite . . . thus 
Himself became the last effect — at once God and 
man, the Mediator between the finite and the In- 
finite. . . . Without Him there would be no con- 
nection between the last effect and the Infinite ; 
whereas through Him somewhat of the Divine 
may dwell in us, namely, in the faculty to know 
and believe that there is a God, and that He is 
infinite. And again through Him, by the use of 
the means, we are led to true religion, and become 
children of God, and not of the world." 

103 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Observing now that this is not the place to 
explain the nature of the connection by the nexus, 
he stops to consider the difficulty which may be 
felt as to the condition of those who have not 
learned and believed in the Messiah. He con- 
cludes that though the coming of the Messiah is 
the essential means of salvation, yet " those who 
did not know and do not know that He has come, 
could and can become partakers by the grace of 
God through His coming ; for otherwise we 
should suppose something in God that would 
seem at variance with His Divine nature and end. 
But as for those who know the Messiah, or have 
the opportunity to know Him, we say that they 
too are made partakers through His coming ; but 
the knowledge also of His coming is necessary to 
them in order to their faith, for the quality of 
faith is determined by knowledge, and its per- 
ception rendered distinct and full ; and therefore 
where knowledge is given, it and faith are in- 
separable.' ' 

The summing up of our author's argument is 
as follows : " Observe what we have gained. We 
have the affirmation of reason for the existence 
of God, and also for His Infinity ; and as this is 

104 



STUDIES AND PUBLICATIONS ABROAD 

now positive knowledge, together with that other 
truth of the existence of a nexus between God 
and man in the Person of the only-begotten Son, 
so we may legitimately advance, not indeed to 
inquire into the nature or qualities of Deity, be- 
cause He is infinite, and His qualities therefore 
we can never penetrate, but to inquire what there 
can be in man to lead to this primary end ; what 
there can be in him that does not repugn the in- 
finite and the nexus ; how a confessedly infinite 
Deity may best be expressed in finite terms that 
shall not be repugnant to the occasion ; what be- 
fitting worship consists in ; what is the peculiar 
efficacy of faith proceeding from a true acknow- 
ledgment of God ; with innumerable other sub- 
jects, which cannot be settled briefly, but require 
to be rationally deduced in a volume by them- 
selves. And as by the grace of God we have all 
these matters revealed in Holy Scripture, so where 
reason is perplexed in its apprehensions we must 
at once have recourse to Revelation ; and where 
we cannot discover from Revelation either what 
we should adopt or in what sense we should un- 
derstand its declarations, we must then fly to the 
oracle of reason." 



V 



CONTINUED STUDY OF THE BODY 
IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

What is our quest ? A man fitted by birthright 
and by training of heart and mind to recognize 
the sign of the Son of Man in the clouds of per- 
verted Scripture, that have darkened human rea- 
son and withdrawn the light of faith. And here 
we have Emanuel Swedenborg of such birthright, 
with devotion of his life to the advancement of 
mankind, led through severest' mathematical, me- 
chanical, and philosophical reasoning — without 
as yet any consciousness of special guidance or 
purpose — to absolute demonstration in his own 
mind of the necessity and the existence of the 
Divine Son of Man, to be sought and found by 
us in the Holy Scriptures. But let us wait. Sci- 
entific and philosophic studies are not yet com* 
pleted. Twelve years more are to be devoted to 
them before the mission is Divinely signified to 
him of revealing this Son of Man in His Word. 

The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, pub- 
106 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

lished in 1740, was an attempt to reach a philo- 
sophic view of the human organism as the abode 
and instrument of the soul. Of his method the 
author says — 

"In the experimental knowledge of anatomy 
our way has been pointed out by men of the 
greatest and most cultivated talents, such as 
Eustachius [and nineteen others named], whose 
discoveries, far from consisting of fallacious, 
vague, and empty speculations, will forever con- 
tinue to be of practical use to posterity. Assisted 
by the studies and elaborate writings of these 
illustrious men and fortified by their authority, I 
have resolved to commence and complete my de- 
sign — that is to say, to open some part of those 
things which it is generally supposed that nature 
has involved in obscurity. Here and there I have 
taken the liberty to throw in the results of my 
own experience ; but this only sparingly, for on 
deeply considering the matter I deemed it best to 
make use of the facts supplied by others. Indeed, 
there are some that seem born for experimental 
observation and endowed with a sharper insight 
than others, as if they possessed naturally a finer 
acumen. . . . There are others again who enjoy 

107 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

a natural faculty for contemplating facts already 
discovered, and eliciting their causes. Both are 
peculiar gifts and are seldom united in the same 
person. Besides, I found when intently occupied 
in exploring the secrets of the human body that 
as soon as I discovered anything which had not 
been observed before, I began, seduced probably 
by self-love, to grow blind to the most acute lu- 
cubrations and researches of others, and to origi- 
nate the whole series of inductive arguments 
from my particular discovery alone. . . , Nay, 
when I essayed to form principles from these 
discoveries, I thought I could detect in various 
other phenomena much to confirm their truth, 
although in reality they were fairly susceptible 
of no construction of the kind. I therefore laid 
aside my instruments, and restraining my desire 
for making observations, determined rather to 
rely on the researches of others than to trust 
to my own." 

After describing as from experience the faculty 
which some enjoy — who ever more than he ? — 
of confining their attention to one thing and 
evolving with distinctness all that lies in it, of 
distributing their thoughts into classes separat- 

108 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

ing mixed topics into appropriate divisions, of 
skilfully subordinating the series thus divided, 
and of being never overwhelmed by the multi- 
plicity of things, but continually enlightened more 
and more, he says of such as enjoy the faculty — 
"The fictitious depresses them, the obscure 
pains them ; but they are exhilarated by the truth, 
and in the presence of everything that is clear 
they too are clear and serene. When after a long 
course of reasoning they make a discovery of the 
truth, straightway there is a cheering light and 
joyful confirmatory brightness that plays around 
the sphere of their mind, and a kind of mysterious 
radiation — I know not whence it proceeds — 
that darts through some sacred temple in the 
brain. Thus a sort of rational instinct displays 
itself, and in a manner gives notice that the soul 
is called into a state of inward communion, and 
has returned at that moment into the golden age 
of its intellectual perfections. The mind that has 
known this pleasure is wholly carried away in 
pursuit of it ; and in the kindling flame of its love 
despises in comparison, as external pastimes, all 
merely corporeal pleasures ; and though it recog- 
nizes them as means for exciting the animal mind 

109 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

and the purer blood, it on no account follows them 
as ends. Persons of this cast regard the arts and 
sciences only as aids to wisdom, and learn them 
as helps to its attainment, not that they may be 
reputed wise for possessing them. They modestly 
restrain all tendency to inflated ideas of them- 
selves, knowing that the sciences are an ocean of 
which they can catch but a few drops. They look 
on no one with a scornful brow or supercilious 
air, nor arrogate any praise to themselves. They 
ascribe all to the Deity, and regard Him as the 
source from which all true wisdom descends. In 
the promotion of His glory they place the end 
and object of their own." 

Remarking now how sensual and worldly cares 
impair this noble faculty, he says, " Nothing super- 
induces more darkness on the human mind than 
the interference of its own fancied providence in 
matters that properly belong to the Divine provi- 
dence/ ' And then he goes on to say, still as from 
experience — 

" This faculty, however, is chiefly impaired by 
the thirst for glory and the love of self. I know 
not what darkness overspreads the rational fac- 
ulties when the mind begins to swell with pride, 

no 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

or when our intuition of objects calls up in the 
objects themselves the image and glory of our 
own selfhood. It is like pouring a liquor upon 
some exquisite wine, which throws it into a froth, 
sullies its purity, and clouds its translucence. It 
is as if the animal spirits were stirred into waves, 
and a tempest drove the grosser blood into insur- 
gent motion, by which the organs of internal sen- 
sation or perception becoming swollen, the powers 
of thought are dulled, and the whole scene of 
action in their theatre changed. In those who 
experience these disorderly states, the rational 
faculty is crippled and brought to a standstill ; or 
rather its movements become retrograde instead 
of progressive. A limit is put to its operations, 
which its possessor imagines to be the limit of all 
human capacity, because he himself is unable to 
overstep it. He sees little or nothing in the most 
studied researches of others, but everything — 
oh, how vain-glorious ! — in his own. Nor can 
he return to correct conceptions until his elated 
thoughts have subsided to their proper level. 
'There are many,' says Seneca, ' who might have 
attained wisdom, had they not fancied they had 
attained it already.' The Muses love a tranquil 

in 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

mind ; and there is nothing but humility, contempt 
of self, and simple love of truth, that can prevent 
or remedy the evils we have described. 

" But how often does a man labor in vain to 
divest himself of his own nature ! How often, when 
ignorant or unmindful of the love that creeps upon 
him, will he betray a partiality to himself and the 
offspring of his own genius ! If an author there- 
fore desires that his studies should give birth to 
anything of sterling value, let him be advised, 
when he has committed to paper what he con- 
siders to be of particular merit and is fond of fre- 
quently perusing, to lay it aside for a while, and 
after the lapse of months to return to it as to 
something he had forgotten, and as the produc- 
tion not of himself but of some other writer. Let 
him repeat this practice three or four times in 
the year. . . . Should his writings then often raise 
a blush upon his countenance, should he no longer 
feel an overweening confidence with regard to the 
lines which had received the latest polish from his 
hands, let him be assured that he has made some 
little progress in wisdom/ ' 

At the conclusion of Part First, Swedenborg 
gives a chapter which he styles An Introduction 

112 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

to Rational Psychology, regarding this as the first 
and last of those sciences which lead to the know- 
ledge of the animal economy. " But whereas the 
soul," he goes on to say, " lives withdrawn so far 
within that she cannot be exposed to view until 
the coverings under which she is hidden are un- 
folded and removed in order, it hence becomes 
necessary that we ascend to her by the same steps 
or degrees and the same ladder by which her na- 
ture in the formation of the things of her kingdom 
descends into her body. By way therefore of an 
Introduction to Rational Psychology, I will premise 
the Doctrine of Series and Degrees — a doctrine 
of which in the preceding chapters I have made 
such frequent mention, the design of which is to 
teach the nature of order and its rules as observed 
and prescribed in the succession of things.'* 

The first chapter of Part Second is devoted to 
the motion of the brain, the second to the cortical 
substance of the brain, and the third to the human 
soul. Confessing the difficulties in the search for 
the soul and his frequent disappointments, he 
says — 

" At length I awoke as from a deep sleep when 
I discovered that nothing is farther removed from 

"3 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

the human understanding than what at the same 
time is really present to it ; and that nothing is 
more present to it than what is universal, prior, 
and superior, since this enters into every particu- 
lar and into everything posterior and inferior. 
What is more omnipresent than the Deity — in 
whom we live and move and have our being — 
and yet what is more remote from the sphere of 
the understanding ? 

" The more any one is perfected in judgment, 
and the better he discerns the distinctions of 
things, the more clearly will he perceive that there 
is an order in things, that there are degrees of 
order, and that it is by these alone he can pro- 
gress, and this step by step from the lowest sphere 
to the highest, or from the outermost to the in- 
nermost. For as often as Nature ascends away 
from external phenomena, or betakes herself in- 
ward, she seems to have separated from us, and 
to have left us altogether in the dark as to what 
direction she has taken. We have need therefore 
of some science to serve as our guide in tracing 
out her steps, to arrange all things into series, to 
distinguish these series into degrees, and to con- 
template the order of each thing in the order of 

114 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

the whole. The science which does this I call the 
Doctrine of Series and Degrees, or the Doctrine 
of Order . . . [which] teaches the distinction and 
relation between things superior and inferior, or 
prior and posterior. . . 

" I am strongly persuaded that the essence and 
nature of the soul, its influx into the body, and 
the reciprocal action of the body can never come 
to demonstration without these doctrines, com- 
bined with a knowledge of anatomy, pathology, 
and psychology; nay, even of physics, and es- 
pecially of the auras of the world. . . . This and 
no other is the reason that with diligent study 
and intense application I have investigated the 
anatomy of the body, and principally the human, 
so far as it is known from experience ; and that I 
have followed the anatomy of all its parts, in the 
same manner as I have here investigated the cor- 
tical substance. " 

The soul itself and a society of souls he finds 
to be the final purpose of all creation, and then 
he concludes — 

" If there be a society of souls, must not the 
City of God on the universal earth be the semi- 
nary of it ? The most universal law of its citizens 

"5 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

is, that they love their neighbor as themselves, 
and God more than themselves. All other things 
are means, and are good in proportion as they 
lead directly to this end. Now as everything in 
the universe is created as a means to this end, it 
follows that the application of the means, and a 
true regard of the end in the means, are the sole 
constituents of a citizen [of the Holy City]. The 
Holy Scripture is the code of rules for obtaining 
the end by the means. 

"These rules are not so dark or obscure as 
the philosophy of the mind and the love of self 
and of the world would make them ; nor so deep 
and hidden but that any sincere soul which per- 
mits the Spirit of God to govern it may draw 
them from this pure fountain — pure enough for 
the use and service of the members of the City 
of God all over the world — without violating any 
form of ecclesiastical government. It is foretold 
that the kingdom of God shall come; that at last 
the guests shall be assembled at the marriage 
supper ; that the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, 
the leopard with the kid, the lion with the ox ; that 
the young child shall play with the asp ; that the 
mountain of God shall rise above all other moun- 

116 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

tains, and that the Gentile and the stranger shall 
come to it to pay their worship. " 

To quote more from this remarkable work of 
the Economy of the Animal Kingdom would ex- 
ceed the proper limits of this small volume. Of 
the literary merits of the work S. T. Coleridge 
said — "I remember nothing in Lord Bacon su- 
perior, few passages equal, either in depth of 
thought, or in richness, dignity, and felicity of 
diction, or in the weightiness of the truths con- 
tained. ,,x And Dr. Spurgin, formerly President 
of the Royal College of Physicians in London, 
pronounced the Part on the Soul " a production 
unparalleled for excellence in the whole compass 
of human philosophy." 2 

But with the preparation and printing of the 
Economy of the Animal Kingdom in 1740 and 
1 74 1, Swedenborg's studies in this direction were 
by no means at an end. Though he returned to 
his duties in the Royal College in November, 
1740, fulfilling these duties anew for two years and 
a half, he had already prescribed for himself a 

1 Literary Remains, May 27, 1827. 

3 Wisdom, Intelligence, and Science the True Characteristics 
of Emanuel Swedenborg. 

117 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

definite series of continued studies, year by year, 
to be completed in 1747 with that of "The City 
of God." These studies had been pursued with 
such diligence that in June, 1743, he petitioned 
the King and the Royal College for a new leave 
of absence, that he might go abroad and complete 
and see through the press a new work of not less 
than five hundred sheets. Leave having been 
obtained, Swedenborg repaired to Holland to con- 
sult the chief libraries and then to print a portion 
of what he had prepared, in two quarto volumes 
of 438 and 486 pages, entitled Regnitm Animate 
— The Animal Kingdom. In his Prologue to the 
first volume he said — 

" Not very long since I published the Economy 
of the Animal Kingdom . . . and before travers- 
ing the whole field in detail, I made a rapid pas- 
sage to the soul and put forth an essay respecting 
it. But on considering the matter more deeply, 
I found that I had directed my course thither both 
too hastily and too fast — after having explored 
the blood only and its peculiar organs. I took the 
step impelled by an ardent desire for knowledge.' ' 

Now he proposes to traverse the whole king- 
dom of the body, hoping that by bending his 

118 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

course inward continually he may open all the 
doors that lead to her and at length by the Divine 
permission contemplate the soul herself. But 
he supposes the objection made that "all those 
things which transcend our present state are mat- 
ters for faith and not for intellect ; M that the in- 
tellect should be "contented with this its lot, and 
not aspire to higher things which, inasmuch as 
they are sanctuaries and matters of Revelation, 
exist to faith only. . . . Where there is faith what 
need is there of demonstration ? . . . Faith is above 
all demonstration because it is above all the phi- 
losophy of the human mind." His reply is, "I 
grant this ; nor would I persuade any one who 
comprehends these high truths by faith, to attempt 
to comprehend them by his intellect : let him ab- 
stain from my books. Whoso believes Revelation 
implicitly, without consulting the intellect, is the 
happiest of mortals, the nearest to heaven, and at 
once a native of both worlds. But these pages of 
mine are written with a view to those only who 
never believe anything but what they can receive 
with the intellect ; consequently who boldly invali- 
date and are fain to deny the existence of all 
supereminent things, sublimer than themselves - 

119 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

as the soul itself, and what follows therefrom ; its 
life, immortality, heaven, etc. . . . Consequently 
they honor and worship nature, the world, and 
themselves ; in other respects they compare them- 
selves to brutes, and think that they shall die in 
the same manner as brutes, and their souls exhale 
and evaporate : thus they rush fearlessly into wick- 
edness. For these persons only I am anxious ; and, 
as I said before, for them I indite and to them I 
dedicate my work. For when I shall have demon- 
strated truths themselves by the analytic method, 
I hope that those debasing shadows or material 
clouds which darken the sacred temple of the mind 
will be dispersed ; and that thus at last under the 
favor of God, who is the Sun of Wisdom, an access 
will be opened and a way laid down to faith. My 
ardent desire and zeal for this end is what urges 
and animates me." 

In the Second Part he says — 

" If we wish to invite real truths, whether nat- 
ural or moral or spiritual — for they all make 
common cause by means of correspondence and 
representation — into the sphere of our rational 
minds, it is necessary that we extinguish the im- 
pure fires of the body and thereby our own delu- 

I20 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

sive lights, and submit and allow our minds un- 
molested by the influences of the body to be 
illumined with the rays of the spiritual power : 
then for the first time truths flow in, for they all 
emanate from that power as their peculiar foun- 
tain. Nor when they are present, are there want- 
ing a multitude of signs by which they attest 
themselves — namely, the varied forms of sweet- 
ness and delight attendant upon truth attained, 
and affecting the mind as the enjoyments that 
result from the harmonies of external objects 
affect the lower and sensitive faculties of the 
body : for as soon as ever a truth shines forth, 
such a mind exults and rejoices ; and this joy is 
the ground of its first assent, and of its first de- 
lighted smile. But the actual confirmation of the 
truth proceeds from its accordance with numer- 
ous reasons, confirmed by experience by means 
of the sciences, and each point of which accord- 
ance receives a similar assent — the mind going 
onward the while with assiduous attention and 
pains by the analytic way, or from effects to 
causes. In addition to these delights there are 
still more universal signs, as the desire and the 
passion for attaining truth, and the love of the 

121 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

truth attained, not for the sake of our own ad- 
vantage, but for that of the advantage of human 
society ; and neither for the glory of ourselves or 
of society, but of the Supreme Divinity alone. 
This is the only way to truths : other things as 
means, which are infinite, God Omnipotent pro- 
vides/ ' 

Inquiring then into the ends or purposes of 
the provision by which it is ordained that man 
should ascend from lowest and outermost to 
highest and innermost, he unfolds them compre- 
hensively, concluding with these — " that in this 
ultimate circle of nature we may receive the won- 
ders of the world, and as we ascend the steps and 
ladders of intelligence receive still greater won- 
ders, in all their significance and with full vision ; 
and that at length we may comprehend by faith 
those profound miracles that cannot be compre- 
hended by the intellect ; and from all these things, 
in the deep hush of awe and amazement, vener- 
ate and adore the omnipotence and providence of 
the Supreme Creator ; and thus in the contempla- 
tion of Him regard as vanity everything that we 
leave behind us. . . . The last end, which also 
is the first, is that our minds, at length become 

122 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

forms of intelligence and innocence, may consti- 
tute a spiritual heaven, a kingdom of God, or a 
holy society, in which the end of creation may 
be regarded by God, and by which God may be 
regarded as the end of ends. From infinite wis- 
dom, added to equal power, and this to equal 
providence, such perpetual end flows constantly 
from the first end to the last, and from the last 
to the first, through the intermediate ends, that 
declare the glory of the Divinity." To this he 
adds in a note, " I shall treat of these subjects, 
by the blessing of God, in the last of my analytic 
Parts. But as yet we are dwelling in the mere 
effects of the world, which exhibit the amazing 
and Divine circle of these ends before the con- 
templation of our very senses." 

Of the high purposes and original method pur- 
sued in this treatise on The Animal Kingdom, the 
following extracts will give a good idea : — 

" As the blood is continually making its circle 
of life, that is to say, is in a constant revolution 
of birth and death; as it dies in its old age and 
is regenerated or born anew ; and as the veins 
solicitously gather together the whole of its cor- 
poreal part, and the lymphatics of its spirituous 

123 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

part, and successively bring it back, refect it with 
new chyle, and restore it to the pure and youth- 
ful blood ; and as the kidneys constantly purge it 
of impurities, and restore its pure parts to the 
blood, so likewise man, who lives at once in body 
and spirit while he lives in the blood, must undergo 
the same fortunes generally, and in the progress 
of his regeneration must daily do the like. Such 
a perpetual symbolical representation is there of 
spiritual life in corporeal life ; as likewise a per- 
petual typical representation of the soul in the 
body. In this consists the searching of the heart 
and the reins, which is a thing purely Divine. 

" In our Doctrine of Representations and Cor- 
respondences, we shall treat of both these sym- 
bolical and typical representations, and of the 
astonishing things which occur, I will not say in 
the living body only, but throughout nature, and 
which correspond so entirely to supreme and spir- 
itual things that one would swear that the physical 
world is purely symbolical of the spiritual world, 
insomuch that if we choose to express any natural 
truth in physical and definite vocal terms, and to 
convert these terms only into the corresponding 
spiritual terms, we shall by this means elicit a 

124 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

spiritual truth or theological dogma, in place of 
the physical truth or precept ; although no mortal 
would have predicted that anything of the kind 
could possibly arise by bare literal transposition, 
inasmuch as the one precept, considered sepa- 
rately from the other, appears to have absolutely 
no relation to it. 

" I intend hereafter to communicate a number 
of examples of such correspondences, together 
with a vocabulary containing the terms of spir- 
itual things, as well as of the physical things for 
which they are to be substituted. This symbol- 
ism pervades the living body ; and I have chosen 
simply to indicate it here, for the purpose of 
pointing out the spiritual meaning of searching 
the reins/ ' 

In addition to what Swedenborg himself pub- 
lished of The Animal Kingdom, several parts 
have been recently published in Germany and 
England, including three thick octavo volumes 
on "The Brain, Considered Anatomically, Physio- 
logically, and Philosophically. " ' That so much 
labor was given to the study of the brain was 
doubtless because the author found in it the seat 
1 James Spiers: London, 1882, 1887. 

!25 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

of the soul, to knowledge of which he was aspir- 
ing. In the Animal Kingdom he says — 

" The soul is properly the universal es settee of 
its body. The soul is the only thing substantial 
and essential in its body. From it are derived 
and born all the substances and essences which 
are called composite and corporeal. For what 
can truly be unless it be from a thing prior, more 
simple, and more unique, which is the beginning 
of the rest ? That which gives to others being 
and existence must itself be. It cannot be pro- 
duced from modes, accidents, and qualities with- 
out a subject and form, and consequently without 
a real essence and substance. The soul also is pe- 
culiar or individual, and there is not one universal 
soul for all ; so that the soul of one cannot be- 
long to the body of another; for — which is to be 
demonstrated — the very form of the body is the 
result of its essential determination, or the body 
itself represents the soul as it were in an image. 
. . . The higher or highest universal essence is 
the soul, the lower is the animal spirit, and the 
third the blood. The highest essence imparts 
being, the power of acting and life, to the lower, 
and this imparts the same in like manner to 

126 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

the lowest ; the lowest, consequently, exists and 
subsists from the first by means of the middle. 
. . . The determinations of the highest univer- 
sal essence of the bodily system are those fibres 
which are the simplest of all, and which are like 
rays of the soul, and the first designations of 
forms. The determinations of the lower universal 
essence are those fibres which are derived from 
the most simple ; but those of the lowest are the 
arterial and venous vessels. As the essences, so 
also the determinations are in turn derived from 
one another, the higher imparting being to the 
lower. From these determinations, or from these 
determining essences, all the organic viscera, and 
consequently the whole bodily system, is woven 
and formed. " 

"It is the cerebrum through which the inter- 
course between the soul and the body is established ; 
for it is as it were the link and the uniting me- 
dium. From what follows it will appear that the 
soul is in the cerebrum as it were in its heaven 
and Olympus, though it is essentially everywhere 
and present in every individual part. In the cere- 
brum, however, is formed as it were its court and 
palace chamber, from which it looks around on 

127 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

all things belonging to it, and determines them 
into act in agreement with its intuition. " 

The thoroughness of this study of the brain 
with the intent to find the residence of the soul 
and the mode of its control over the body led to 
some remarkable discoveries, of which the learned 
world is now first becoming aware. Among these 
it is surprising to find the determination of the 
glandules of the cortical substance of the cere- 
brum, as the seat of the soul's sensation and 
control of the body. Even more surprising is 
Swedenborg's first general localization of the 
different functions of the several parts of the 
cerebrum. Many more observations and deduc- 
tions are contained in these wonderful studies — 
published and unpublished — from which there 
is doubtless still much for students to learn. Dr. 
Max Newburger of Vienna in a recent essay 
says — 

" The great physiological system set forth by 
Swedenborg in his two works — CEconomia Regni 
Animalis and Regnum Animate — contains such 
a number of successful anticipations of modern 
science that we do not wonder when we see how 
feebly his contemporaries grasped the true great- 

128 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

ness of this Aristotle of the North. All the more 
strange is it, however, that the spirit of medical 
investigation elsewhere so lively in these times 
should have left untilled a field so rich as this in 
possibilities." 1 

In an address to the Congress of Anatomists 
assembled at Heidelberg, May 29, 1903, its Presi- 
dent, Prof. Dr. Gustaf Retzius, after describing 
some of Swedenborg's contributions to a know- 
ledge of the anatomy and physiology of the brain, 
concludes — 

"Emanuel Swedenborg, therefore, according to 
the standpoint of his time, not only had a thorough 
knowledge of the construction of the brain, but 
had also gone far ahead of his contemporaries in 
fundamental questions. The question arises — 
how was all this possible ? The answer can hardly 
be other than that Swedenborg was not only a 
learned anatomist and a sharp-sighted observer, 
but also in many respects an unprejudiced, acute, 
and deep anatomical thinker. He towers in the 
history of the study of the brain as a unique, 
wonderful, phenomenal spirit — as an ideal seeker 
for truth, who advanced step by step to ever 

1 The New Philosophy, October, 1903. 
129 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

higher problems. One may more easily under- 
stand his life and labors when one places his 
achievements in Anatomy and Physiology in jux- 
taposition with those in Geology, Mechanics, Cos- 
mogony, and Physics. With this as a background 
his whole endeavor becomes somewhat more in- 
telligible. He sought to find the one principle of 
the universe and of life in the whole. He thought 
that he had found this original principle in the 
motion, the tremulation of the first particles. 
This fundamental view of things led him always 
further to an almost all-sided investigation and to 
a view of the fabric of Creation wonderfully deep 
for his time. With this view as a guide he gained 
knowledge and created theories which could be 
acknowledged and appreciated only in our own 
age." 

Another section of the manuscript left by 
Swedenborg as a part of The Animal Kingdom, 
continues the study of the soul under the title of 
Rational Psychology : — 

"All souls are purely spiritual forms. Thus all 
minds and their loves are purely spiritual, whether 
they are good or evil ; for a spirit whether good 
or evil is still purely spirit, or purely mind, and 

130 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

has purely spiritual — that is, universal — loves, 
in which are contained the principles of lower 
and purely natural loves. A good angel, as also 
an evil angel or devil, is purely spirit; and the 
loves of each are purely spiritual, but with the dif- 
ference that whatever a good spirit loves, the evil 
spirit hates and loves its opposite. 

"The first and supreme love of the spirit or 
soul, and the most universal, is the love of Being 
above itself, from which it has drawn and con- 
tinually draws its essence; in which, through 
which, and on account of which it is and lives. 
This love is the first of all, because nothing can 
exist and subsist from itself except God, who 
exists in Himself, and alone is He who is. Be- 
cause the soul feels this in itself, that supreme 
love is also inborn in it, and thus is the very Di- 
vine love within us. There is also given a love 
directly opposite to this, though also spiritual and 
supreme, which is hatred of any power or being 
above itself. This love is called diabolical ; from 
it is known what the quality of good love is, and 
from the good what the quality of evil love is. 

"The Divine providence takes especial care 
that individuals shall be distinct one from an- 

131 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

other, since it is the very end of creation that a 
most perfect society of souls may exist. ... As 
then no soul is absolutely like another, but some 
difference or diversity of state exists between all, 
this has not obtained merely for the sake of dis- 
tinguishing one from another, but to the end that 
the most perfect form of society might exist from 
the variety. And in such a form there must needs 
be not only a difference among all, but such a 
difference or variety as that all the individuals 
may come together in harmony, so as to form to- 
gether a society in which nothing shall be want- 
ing that is not found in some one. . . . This 
harmonic variety, however, does not consist in 
the outward variety of souls, but in their spiritual 
variety, of love toward God and toward their 
neighbor ; for the state of the soul concerns only 
its spiritual state, how it may be nearest to its 
God. When any shade of variety is wanting, 
some place in heaven may be said to be as yet 
vacant ; so that all the differences, or varieties, 
are to be filled up before the form can exist in 
full perfection. 

"But whether there are to be many societies 
and as it were many heavens of which the uni- 

132 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

versal society will consist, which is called the 
kingdom of God, we seem also able to conclude ; 
for every variety, even spiritual, involves an order, 
with subordination and coordination. . . . For 
when the form of rule is most perfect, it is of 
necessity that all societies should produce a gen- 
eral harmony together, as the individual members 
produce a particular harmony in each society. 

"This is called in heaven the kingdom of God, 
but on earth the seminary of that kingdom, the 
very city of God, which is not joined to any cer- 
tain religion or church, but is distributed through 
the whole world ; for God elects His members 
out of all, that is, of those who had actually 
loved God above themselves and their neighbors 
as themselves. For this is the law of all laws : in 
this culminate all laws, Divine and natural ; all 
the rest are but means leading to this. 

" Such a society cannot exist without its Head 
or Prince ; that is to say, without Him who has 
been man, without blame and without offence, 
victor over all affections of the mind, virtue itself 
and piety itself, and the love of God above one's 
self, and the love of the companion and neighbor, 
and thus Divinity in Himself — in whom the 

J 33 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

whole society should be represented, and through 
whom the members of the society might come to 
His will. Without such a king of souls, the soci- 
ety might be gathered and exist in vain. This 
also follows necessarily from the conceded form 
of rule, from the difference of state of each mem- 
ber, and from the approach to God through love. 
For that form must be determined by the purer 
of every degree, consequently by the purest, who 
has been without sin, that is, by our Saviour and 
Preserver, Jesus Christ, in whom alone we can by 
faith and love draw near to the Divine throne. " 

We have followed Swedenborg in his search for 
the life and soul of the universe through the geo- 
metry and physics of the inanimate world, then 
through the living organism of the human body, 
the soul's home and body-servant, and lastly in 
the soul's reception of life from the Creator, in 
its duty to this Source of its life, and in its de- 
pendence on God-man, the Son of God, as the 
means of conjunction with the Divine Itself. The 
marked feature in all this study, that which gives 
its charm and inspiration, is its never-failing recog- 
nition of life, life from the Divine Life, as the 
cause, the essence, the form, and the activity of 

i34 



IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL 

each minutest entity — the living activity being 
manifested in inconceivably minute and rapid vi- 
brations, or tremulations — a theory wonderfully 
verified in our own day, though our physicists 
do not yet connect the life of matter with its 
Source. 

Yet a notable recognition of similar import in 
our day is that of our greatest mathematician, 
Professor Benjamin Pierce, who stated in the in- 
troduction to his Analytic Mechanics — 

" i . Motion is an essential element of all physi- 
cal phenomena ; and its introduction into the uni- 
verse of matter was necessarily the preliminary 
act of creation. The earth must have remained 
forever 'without form, and void,' and eternal dark- 
ness must have been upon the face of the deep, 
if the spirit of God had not first ' moved upon the 
face of the waters.' 

" 2. Motion appears to be the simplest manifes- 
tation of power, and the idea of force seems to be 
primitively derived from the conscious effort which 
is required to produce motion. Force may, then, 
be regarded as having a spiritual origin, and when 
it is imparted to the physical world, motion is its 
usual form of mechanical exhibition. 

i35 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

" 3. Matter is purely inert. It is susceptive of 
receiving and containing any amount of mechani- 
cal force which may be communicated to it, but 
cannot originate new force, or in any way trans- 
form the force which it has received/ ' 



VI 



CONTINUED STUDY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM : 
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

Thus far Swedenborg's labors have been de- 
voted to the unfolding of the Divine revelation 
in the Book of Nature, by means of experiment, 
analysis, and the exercise of reason, under such 
guidance as he was prepared to receive of the Spirit 
of Truth. In these labors we have observed the 
ample training of the reasoning faculty, even to 
maturity, with its increasing acknowledgment of 
dependence on the light of the Sun of heaven. 
We are now to learn the preparation of heart yet 
necessary, in order that the submission to the 
guidance of the Spirit of Truth might become so 
entire as to direct him securely in unfolding the 
Divine revelation in the written Word. The 
groundwork of this preparation we may recog- 
nize in the Rules of Life which Sandels found, 
as he says in his eulogy, in more than one place 
among his manuscripts, and which may be com- 
mended to all of us who would fulfil the duties 

i37 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

of this life and prepare for life in the kingdom of 
heaven : — 

" i . Diligently to read and meditate upon the 
Word of God. 

"2. To be content under the dispensations of 
God's providence. 

"3. To observe a propriety of behavior, and to 
preserve the conscience pure. 

" 4. To obey what is commanded, to attend 
faithfully to one's office and other duties, and in 
addition to make one's self useful to society in 
general." 

As marking the progress of the preparation, we 
find in his philosophical works, besides the grow- 
ing humility and reverence that illumine the pages, 
some plain statements, drawn we cannot doubt 
from his spiritual experience. In the part of The 
Animal Kingdom treating of the soul, he says — 

" To change the disposition is to change the 
very nature. To change a good disposition into an 
evil one is comparatively easy ; but to change an 
evil one into a good is more difficult. This can in 
no way be effected except by means of the rational 
mind and its understanding, whether the under- 
standing be our own, or derived from faith, or per- 

138 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

suaded by authority. Nor is the nature changed 
unless we become averse to evils and abhor them, 
and never lead our mind back into the former state ; 
and unless whenever it slips back, we snatch it out, 
from the liberty given, and come into the state 
which agrees with the more perfect love. Not even 
so is it changed unless we remain a long while in 
this state, and meet the other with force and vio- 
lence, clothing ourselves with the opposite new 
state by constant works and practices of virtues, 
and so continuing until it has become a second 
nature and expelled as it were the other nature — 
so that whenever the old nature returns, we per- 
ceive that it must be resisted. In this way and no 
other we can put off the evil nature and put on a 
good nature ; but it is very difficult in this life with- 
out grace and Divine help." 

These we feel to be the words of experience, 
of long and successful labor. But what is here 
described is only the reformation of the natural 
mind, or disposition. After this it is necessary that 
the natural mind should so far submit as to suffer 
the spiritual mind to flow in with its own loves. 

"To this," Swedenborg says, "the intellect 
unless from what is revealed contributes nothing, 

i39 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

but faith springing from God does the work. And 
so, His will being invoked, His spirit flows into 
the soul and changes its state, or perfects it ; but 
the work is one of long discipline, if the soul is 
evil, that it may become good. . . . Hence it 
is plain how difficult it is to turn an evil soul into 
a good one, and that this is of the Divine grace 
alone, though there must be persevering applica- 
tion on the part of man." 

What is here described, though in the terms 
of his Psychology, we cannot fail to recognize as 
the regeneration of water and of the spirit. The 
description is that of experience already, we may 
believe, far advanced. What was yet needed for 
its completion we are now to see. But we may 
well pause to consider how little we have our- 
selves accomplished, even of the reformation of 
the natural disposition, and how little we know 
in our own experience of the total regeneration 
sought by Swedenborg. This deep regeneration, 
though with his consent and cooperation, was 
being effected by the Lord for a purpose to Swe- 
denborg unknown. A few years later, he wrote — 

" What the acts of my life involved I could not 
distinguish at the time they happened, but by the 

140 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

Divine mercy of God Messiah I was afterward 
informed with regard to some, even many par- 
ticulars. From these I was at last able to see that 
the Divine providence governed the acts of my 
life uninterruptedly from my very youth, and 
directed them in such a manner that by means 
of the knowledge of natural things I was enabled 
to reach a state of intelligence, and thus by the 
Divine mercy of God Messiah, to serve as an in- 
strument for opening those things which are hid- 
den interiorly in the Word of God Messiah.' ' 

Still later, Nov n, 1766, he wrote to Oetin- 
ger — 

" I was introduced by the Lord into the natu- 
ral sciences, and thus prepared, and indeed from 
the year 17 10 to 1744, when heaven was opened 
to me." And this he said was for the purpose — 

"That the spiritual things which are being 
revealed at the present day may be taught and 
understood naturally and rationally ; for spiritual 
truths have a correspondence with natural truths, 
because in these they terminate, and upon these 
they rest. . . . The Lord has granted me besides 
to love truths in a spiritual manner — that is, to 
love them, not for the sake of honor, nor for the 

141 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

sake of gain, but for the sake of the truths them- 
selves ; for he who loves truths for the sake of 
truth, sees them from the Lord, because the Lord 
is the Way and the Truth.' ' 

For a better understanding of this love of truth 
for the sake of truth, and of its effects, let us 
here read a passage or two from Swedenborg's 
later Heavenly Arcana : — 

" Doctrine is to be drawn from the Word, and 
while it is being drawn man must be in enlighten- 
ment from the Lord ; and he is in enlightenment 
when in the love of truth for the sake of truth, 
not for the sake of self and the world. These are 
they who are enlightened in the Word when they 
read it, and see truth, and therefrom form for 
themselves doctrine. The reason is, that such 
men communicate with heaven, thus with the 
Lord, and so, being enlightened from the Lord, 
they are led to see the truths of the Word as they 
are in heaven ; for the Lord flows in through hea- 
ven into their understandings, the interior under- 
standing being what is enlightened. The Lord at 
the same time flows in with faith, by means of the 
cooperation of the new will, to which it belongs to 
be affected with truth for the sake of truth." 

142 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

" The Lord speaks with the man of the Church 
in no other way than by means of the Word, for 
He then enlightens man so that he may see the 
truth ; and He also gives perception so that man 
may perceive that it is so. But this takes place 
according to the quality or the desire of truth 
with man, and the desire of truth with man is 
according to the love of it. They who love truth 
for the sake of truth are in enlightenment, and 
they who love truth for the sake of good are in 
perception/ ' 

Of the manifestation to him of the Divine pur- 
pose, and of further steps necessary in prepara- 
tion, we now learn many things from his Spiritual 
Diary : — 

" During several years" — he notes, Aug. 27, 
1748 — " not only had I dreams by which I was 
informed about the things on which I was writing, 
but I experienced also changes of state, there 
being a certain extraordinary light in what was 
written. Afterward I had many visions with 
closed eyes, and light was given me in an extraor- 
dinary manner. There was also an inflow from 
spirits, as manifest to the sense as if it had been 
into the senses of the body ; there were infesta- 

i43 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

tions in various ways by evil spirits when I was 
in temptations ; and afterward when writing any- 
thing to which the spirits had an aversion, I was 
almost possessed by them, so as to feel something 
like a tremor. Flamy lights were seen [confirm- 
ing what was written] and conversations heard in 
the early morning, besides many other things." 
" For nearly three years M — he writes in August, 
1747 — "I have been allowed to perceive and 
notice the operation of spirits, not by a sort of 
internal sight, but by a sensation which is asso- 
ciated with a sort of obscure sight, by which I 
noticed their presence, which was various, their 
approach and departure, besides many other 
things." 

For some years his dreams had been growing 
more remarkable and more significant, so that he 
had been led to keep a record of them. The ear- 
lier records, beginning as early as 1736, were cut 
from his Diary for preservation in the family and 
now are lost ; but there is still preserved a minute 
account of the dreams that he had at Amsterdam 
and London in the spring and summer of 1744, 
the critical period of his spiritual experience, to- 
gether with a brief memorandum of those that 

144 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

came to him in the previous December, when he 
had gone from Amsterdam to the Hague. 

In that month he notes — " How I opposed my- 
self to the Spirit ; and how I then enjoyed this, 
but afterward found that it was nonsense, without 
life and coherence ; and that consequently a great 
deal of what I had written, in proportion as I had 
rejected the power of the Spirit, was of that de- 
scription ; and indeed that thus all the faults are 
my own, but the truths are not my own. Some- 
times indeed I became impatient and thought I 
would rebel if all did not go on with the ease I 
desired, after I no longer did anything for my 
own sake. [And again] I found my un worthiness 
less, and gave thanks for the grace. " 

This is interesting in connection with the fact 
that in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, 
published three years before, we find some ma- 
terial statements which have been disproved by 
later researches ; while in The Animal Kingdom, 
which he was now preparing for the press, nothing 
of importance is found that does not stand the test 
of time. It is noteworthy also that near this period 
he appends to some of his manuscripts the remark, 
" These things are true, for I have the sign " — 

i45 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

by which we understand him to mean the flamy 
sign that appeared to him as a confirmation of 
what was true. To others again he appends, on 
stating what he is going to do, " So I seem or- 
dered.' ' Still his struggles go on : — 

" How I resisted the power of the Holy Spirit, 
and what took place afterward. The hideous spec- 
tres which I saw, without life — they were terrible ; 
although bound, they kept moving in their bands. 
They were in company with an animal by which 
I and not the child was attacked. It seemed to 
me as if I were lying on a mountain below which 
was an abyss ; knots were on it. I was lying there 
trying to hold myself up, holding on to a knot, 
without foothold, and an abyss underneath. This 
signifies that I desire to rescue myself from the 
abyss, which yet is not possible." 

That is to say, as we understand, the abyss of 
natural, selfish will, out of which we are to be 
rescued by the Divine grace, but not possibly by 
our own power. In March he dreams again of the 
abyss, into which there is danger of falling unless 
he receive help. 

In April, "the day before Easter, I experienced 
nothing the whole night, although I repeatedly 

146 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

woke up ; I thought that all was past and gone, 
and that I had been either forsaken or exiled. 
About morning it seemed to me as if I were rid- 
ing, and as if I had had the direction pointed out. 
It was however dark, and when I looked I found 
that I had gone astray on account of the dark- 
ness ; but then it brightened up and I saw how I 
had gone wrong, and I noticed the way and the 
forests and groves which I was to go through, 
and also heaven behind them, and then I awoke. 
My thoughts then of their own accord turned upon 
this, and afterward on the other life, and it seemed 
to me as if everything was full of grace. I burst 
into tears at having not loved, but rather pro- 
voked, Him who had led me and pointed out the 
way to the kingdom of grace ; and also at my 
being unworthy of acceptance by grace.' ' 

" Easter was on the 5 th of April, when I went 
to the Lord's table. Temptation still continued, 
most in the afternoon, till six o'clock ; but it 
assumed no definite form. It was an anxiety 
felt at being condemned and in hell ; but in this 
feeling the hope given by the Holy Spirit — ac- 
cording to Paul's epistle to the Romans, v. 5 — 
remained strong. .1 was assured that my sins 

i47 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

were forgiven, and yet I could not control my 
wandering thoughts so as to restrain some ex- 
pressions opposed to my better judgment : I was 
by permission under the influence of the Evil One. 
The temptation was assuaged by prayer and the 
Word of God : faith was there in its entirety, but 
confidence and love seemed to be gone." 

After describing a terrible conflict that followed 
with a snake, changing to a dog, in a dream, he 
adds — 

" From this may be seen the nature of the 
temptation and, on the other hand, the greatness 
of God's grace by the merit of Christ and the 
operation of the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory 
forever and ever. The idea at once struck me how 
great the grace of the Lord is, who accounts and 
appropriates to us our resistance in temptation, 
though it is purely God's grace and is His and 
not our work ; and He overlooks our weaknesses 
in it, which yet must be manifold. I thought also 
of the great glory our Lord dispenses after a brief 
period of tribulation. . . . Afterward I awoke and 
slept again many times and all was in answer to 
my thoughts, yet so that in everything there was 
such life and glory that I can give no description 

148 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

of it; for it was all heavenly, clear to me at the 
time, but afterward inexpressible. In short I was 
in heaven, and I heard a language which no hu- 
man tongue can utter with its inherent life, nor 
the glory and inmost delight resulting from it. 
Besides, while I was awake I was in a heavenly 
ecstasy which is also indescribable. . . . Praise 
and honor and glory be to the Highest ! hallowed 
be His Name ! Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts ! " 
" By this means," he says, "I learned by ex- 
perience the meaning of this, not to love the 
angels more than God ; as they had nearly over- 
thrown the whole work. In comparison with our 
Lord no attention must be paid to them, that is, 
to them in respect to the help they can render, 
since their love is far lower than His. By some 
rays of light in me I found that it would be the 
greatest happiness to become a martyr ; for, on 
beholding inexpressible grace combined with love 
to God, a desire was kindled in me to undergo 
this torture, which is nothing compared with 
eternal torment ; and [a sense] that the least of 
the things that one can offer is his life. . . . This 
took place in the night between Easter Sunday 
and Easter Monday." 

149 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Here we see the inward depth of the tempta- 
tion and regeneration which Swedenborg was now 
undergoing. All his previous efforts were external 
in comparison, and futile. Indeed he is learning 
the inefficacy and error of all merely human efforts 
for goodness, even those of the angels themselves. 
And all this was to the end that he might yield 
himself wholly into the Lord's hands, and become 
His humble, faithful servant, with a new heart 
and a new spirit. Nor was his personal regenera- 
tion all that was at stake. The great question as 
to how regeneration is accomplished was to be 
experimentally solved and intelligently compre- 
hended. From the time of the Christian Fathers 
it had become more and more misunderstood. 
The Roman Catholic Church taught that it was 
effected by baptism and confirmed by good works. 
The Reformed Churches had adopted the same 
belief in baptism as regeneration, for those who 
should receive faith as the elect — denying that 
men can do anything about it. For the implanting 
of a new, true, interior Christian Church, it was es- 
sential that the real means of regeneration should 
be understood. Swedenborg by inheritance was a 
mild Lutheran. By experience he now learns that 

*5<> 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

neither has baptism regenerated, nor his own labor 
in reformation ; that he is in danger of the abyss 
from deep natural tendency to sin; that the Lord's 
merit cannot be imputed to him and so effect his 
salvation ; but that to be saved he must see and 
confess his sinfulness, be distressed on account 
of it, pray to the Lord for the grace of forgive- 
ness, making every possible effort of resistance to 
evil, and all with the acknowledgment that both 
the prayer and the effort are not his own, but given 
from the Lord alone. The process is, indeed, not 
essentially different from that we have seen 
already sketched in The Animal Kingdom ; but 
it is now being accomplished in interior degrees, 
far beyond what Swedenborg has imagined. And 
in his later works he has taught us that regener- 
ation is applicable to several distinct degrees of 
the mind, of which the more interior are opened 
and regenerated with comparatively few. And as 
each successive degree is nearer to the Lord, 
His presence and agency in its regeneration be- 
come more clearly seen ; or, in other words, each 
successive approach to the Lord brings a new 
consciousness of interior tendency to sin, which 
must needs be deplored and submitted to Him, 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

and a deeper consciousness that all the power of 
deliverance is from Him alone. All this is learn- 
ing to understand and to be aided by our Lord's 
victory over the weakness of human nature — in 
fact, to see His face in the clouds of heaven. 

How deeply this was impressed on Swedenborg's 
heart and soul we learn from his Diary : — 

" This have I learned, that the only thing . . . 
is in all humility to thank God for His grace and 
to pray for it, and to recognize our own unworthi- 
ness and God's infinite grace. . . . The sum of 
all I found to be this, that the one thing needful 
is to cast one's self in all humility on our Lord's 
grace, to recognize one's own unworthiness, and to 
thank God in humility for His grace ; for if there 
is a feeling of glorification contained in it, the ten- 
dency of which is toward our own honor — whether 
it is a glorification of God's grace or of anything 
else — such a feeling is impure. ... I found that 
I was more unworthy than others and the greatest 
sinner for this reason, that our Lord has granted 
me to penetrate by thought into certain things 
more deeply than many others do ; and the very 
source of sin lies in the thoughts I am carrying 
out, so that my sins have on that account a deeper 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

foundation than those of many others : and in this 
I found my unworthiness and my sins greater than 
those of other men. For it is not sufficient to de- 
clare one's own unworthiness, since the heart may 
be far removed from such a declaration, and it 
may be a mere matter of the imagination : but 
actually to see that such is the case is due to 
the grace of the Spirit. 

" Now while I was in the spirit I thought and 
strove by thought to attain a knowledge of how 
to avoid all that was impure. I noticed, however, 
that this intruded itself from the ground of the 
love of self on all occasions when anything was 
reflected upon ; as, for instance, when any one did 
not regard me according to my own estimation of 
myself, I thought, ' O if you only knew what grace 
I have, you would act differently.' This then was 
not only impure, but originated in the love of self. 
At last I found this out and entreated God's for- 
giveness ; and I then wished that others also might 
have the same grace, as they perhaps either have 
had or will have. From this I observed clearly that 
there was still in me that same pernicious apple 
which has not yet been converted, and which is 
Adam's root and his hereditary sin. Yes, and an 

1 53 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

infinite number of other roots of sin remain in 
me. 

At times he trusted that his pride in his own 
works was subdued and would no more trouble him, 
but again and again he had to learn his depend- 
ence for this, as for all other grace, on the con- 
stant protection of the Lord. 

" April 10 and II. . . . When awake I began 
thinking whether all this was not mere fantasy, 
and I then noticed that my faith was vacillating. 
I therefore pressed my hands together and prayed 
that I might be strengthened in faith, which also 
took place immediately. Again when thoughts 
occurred to me about being worthier than others, 
I prayed in like manner, whereupon these thoughts 
at once vanished ; if therefore our Lord in the least 
withdraw His hand from any one, he is out of the 
true path, and also out of faith, as has been mani- 
festly the case with me. 

"I slept this night about eleven hours and 
during the whole of the morning was in my usual 
state of internal gladness, which was nevertheless 
attended with a pang : this I thought arose from the 
power of the spirit and my own un worthiness. At 
last with God's help I came into these thoughts 

*54 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

— that we ought to be contented with everything 
which pleases the Lord, because it is for the Lord 
to say ; and further that the Spirit is not to be re- 
sisted when we receive from God the assurance 
that it is God's grace which does all things for our 
welfare ; for if we are God's we must be delighted 
with whatever He pleases to do with His own : still 
we must ask the Lord for this, because not even 
the least thing is in our own power. For this the 
Lord gave me His grace. I reflected upon this, 
desiring to understand the reason why all this hap- 
pens to me. Yet this was sinful, for my thoughts 
ought not to have gone in that direction, but I 
ought to have prayed to the Lord for power to 
control them. It ought to be enough for us that 
it so pleases the Lord. In everything we ought 
only to call upon Him, pray to and thank Him, 
and with humility recognize our own unworthi- 
ness. 

" I am still weary in my body and mind ; for I 
know nothing except my ow r n unworthiness, and 
am in pain on account of being a wretched crea- 
ture. I see by this knowledge that I am unworthy 
of the grace I have received. ... I have there- 
fore adopted the following motto — 

J 55 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

" God's will be done ; I am Thine and not 
mine. ,, 

" April II and 12. . . . There is not a single 
thought which is not very much alloyed with un- 
cleanness and impurity. It is therefore best that 
man should every hour and every moment acknow- 
ledge that he is deserving of the punishment of 
hell, but that God's grace and mercy which are in 
Jesus Christ overlook it. I have indeed observed 
that our whole will into which we are born, and 
which is ruled by the body and introduces thought, 
is opposed to the Spirit which does this ; where- 
fore there is a continual strife, and we can by no 
manner of means unite ourselves with the Spirit, 
which by grace is with us ; and hence it is that we 
are dead to everything good, but to everything evil 
we are inclined from ourselves. For this reason 
we must at all times acknowledge ourselves guilty 
of innumerable sins, because our Lord God knows 
all and we only very little about them : we know 
only so much as enters into our thoughts, and only 
when it also enters into the actions do we become 
convinced of it. 

"April 12 and IJ. . . . God's grace thus 
showed me that I had to strive after salvation 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

amid fear and trembling. But I have for my motto, 
1 God's will be done ; I am Thine and not mine;' 
as therefore I have given myself from myself to 
the Lord, He may dispose of me after His own 
pleasure. In the body there seemed to be some- 
thing of discontent, but in the spirit joy ; for the 
grace of our Lord does this. May God strengthen 
me therein ! 

" I was continually in a state of combat be- 
tween thoughts which were antagonistic to one 
another. I pray Thee, O Almighty God, that 
Thou wouldst grant me the grace of being Thine 
and not mine. Pardon my saying that I am Thine 
and not mine ; it is God's privilege and not mine 
to say so. I pray for the grace of being Thine, 
and of not being left to myself. 

" April 1 8 and ig. ... I was at Divine ser- 
vice, where I noticed that thoughts on matters of 
faith, respecting Christ, His merit, and the like, 
even though they be entirely favorable and con- 
firmatory, still cause a certain disquietude, and 
give rise to opposing thoughts which cannot be 
resisted, whenever man tries to believe from his 
own understanding, and not from the Lord's grace. 
At last it was granted me by the grace of the 

*57 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Spirit to receive faith without reasoning upon it, 
and thus to be assured in respect to it. I then saw- 
as it were below me my own thoughts by which 
faith was confirmed; I laughed in my mind at 
them, but still more at those by which they were 
impugned and opposed. Faith appeared to be far 
above the thoughts of my understanding. Then 
only I got peace : may God strengthen me in it ! 
For it is His work ; and mine so much the less as 
my thoughts, and indeed the best of them, hinder 
more than they are able to promote. ... It is 
therefore a higher state — I am uncertain whether 
it is not the highest — - when man by grace no 
longer mixes up his understanding in matters of 
faith ; although it appears as if the Lord with some 
persons permits the understanding to precede 
such states of assurance in respect to things 
which concern the understanding. ' Blessed are 
they who believe and do not see.' This I have 
clearly written in the Prologue [to The Animal 
Kingdom] ; yet of my own self I could never have 
discovered this or arrived at the knowledge of it, 
but God's grace has wrought this, I being uncon- 
scious of it: afterward, however, I perceived it 
from the very effect and the change in my whole 

158 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

interior being. This therefore is God's grace and 
His work, and to Him alone belongs eternal glory. 
From this I see how difficult it is for the learned, 
more indeed than for the unlearned, to arrive at 
such a faith, and consequently to conquer them- 
selves so as to be able to smile at themselves ; for 
man's worship of his own understanding must first 
of all be abolished and overthrown, and this is 
God's work and not man's. It is also God's work 
for man to continue him in that state. Faith is in 
this way separated from our understanding and 
resides above it. This is pure faith ; the other, 
so long as it is mixed up with our own under- 
standing, is impure. Man's understanding must 
be put in bonds, and under the government of 
faith. The ground of faith however must be this, 
that He who has spoken it is God over all and 
Truth itself. That we must become like little 
children is to be understood, it seems, in this 
sense. . . . Faith then is purely God's gift, and 
is received by man when he lives according to the 
commandments of God and continually prays to 
God for it." 

Such experience and testimony is most valuable 
on the part of him who was at the very time en- 

*59 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

gaged in exploring the philosophy of the soul in 
the body, to the end that the way might be made 
clearer for the understanding to arrive at the true 
objects of faith. It is to be noted, however, that 
the submission of the understanding which he 
here enjoins, is to the faith given by the grace of 
God in the inner mind. 

11 April 21 and 22. ... On awaking I heard 
the words, ' All is grace ; ' by which is meant that 
all that has happened is of grace and for the best. 
Afterward, because it seemed to me I was so far 
separated from God that I could not yet think of 
Him in a sufficiently vivid manner, I came into a 
state of doubt whether I should not direct my 
journey homeward; a crowd of confused reasons 
came and my body was seized with a tremor. Yet 
I gathered courage and perceived that I had come 
here to do what was best of all, and that I had re- 
ceived a talent for the promotion of God's glory. 
I saw that all had helped together to this end ; 
that the Spirit had been with me from my youth 
for this very purpose ; wherefore I considered 
myself unworthy of life unless I followed the 
straight course. I then smiled at the other seduc- 
ing thoughts, and thus at luxury, riches, and dis- 

160 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

tinction which I had pursued. All these I saw to 
be vain ; and I discovered that he who is without 
them and is contented, is happier than he who 
possesses them. I therefore smiled at all argu- 
ments by which I might be confirmed, and with 
God's help made a resolution. May God grant 
His help ! . . . I further noticed that faith is 
a sure confidence which is received from God, 
which nevertheless consists in every man's act- 
ing according to his talent for doing good to his 
neighbor, and continually more and more ; that a 
man must do so from faith, because God has so 
ordered it, and must not reason any more about 
it, but do the work of love from obedience to 
faith, even though this be opposed to the lusts 
of the body and its persuasions. Wherefore faith 
without works is not the right kind of faith. A 
man must in reality forsake himself." 

Thus we find Swedenborg learning by experi- 
ence, from his own needs and under Divine guid- 
ance, what saving faith is. From another dream 
he learns " that God speaks with me, and that I 
comprehend only the least portion of what He 
says, because it is in representations, of which I 
understand as yet but very little ; and further 

161 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

that He hears and perceives everything that is 
spoken and every thought that any one enter- 
tains." 

From other representative dreams he under- 
stands "that I must employ my remaining time 
in writing upon that which is higher, and not 
upon worldly things which are far below; and 
indeed that I must write about that which con- 
cerns the very centre of all, and that which con- 
cerns Christ. May God be so gracious as to en- 
lighten me respecting my duty, for I am still in 
some obscurity as to the direction whither I am 
to turn." 

Early in May, 1 744, he went to London for the 
better prosecution of his work on The Animal 
Kingdom. His dreams, interior struggles, and 
thorough purification were continued. 

" May 5 and 6. . . . This now is the sum of 
all : First, that there is nothing but grace by 
which we can be saved. Second, grace is in Jesus 
Christ, who is the seat of grace. Third, love to 
God in Christ promotes salvation. Fourth, man 
then allows himself to be led by the spirit of 
Jesus. Fifth, everything that comes from our- 
selves is dead, and is nothing but sin, and worthy 

162 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 

of eternal damnation. Sixth, for good can come 
from no other source than from the Lord." 

Still laboring in the day-time on The Animal 
Kingdom, a large share of his dreams at night 
relate to his studies ; sometimes encouraging him 
to expect in them the Divine assistance, some- 
times warning him not to be withdrawn by them 
too far from what was more holy and of more 
importance. In this work, which he had under- 
taken of his own counsel, we cannot suppose that 
he would be easily freed from confidence in his 
own abilities. 

August 5 he notes, " I boasted [in a dream] 
of my strength, in the presence of Assessor B. 
This signifies that daily I sin against my God 
in the thoughts which cling to me, and from 
which no man, but God alone, can deliver me ; 
likewise that I had boasted to D. H. about my 
work. On the following day I had intended to 
go to the communion ; but I forbore when from 
the above I found that none but God alone can 
give absolution from sins ; wherefore it was given 
me also to observe some things with respect to 
confession/ ' 

Here we may take leave of Swedenborg's scien- 
163 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

tific pursuits, remarking only that their results 
are in train soon to receive greater attention than 
ever before, in consequence of being newly pub- 
lished in sumptuous style and great completeness 
by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 



VII 

OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT : UNFOLDING OF 
THE WORD 

About this time Swedenborg began to project 
his treatise on the Worship and Love of God. 
He seems to have felt a Divine call to write it, 
and at times to have doubted whether he ought 
not to leave his other work for the purpose. Yet 
it was with reference to this treatise that he re- 
ceived the following caution : — 

" October 6 and 7. . . . Afterward I lighted 
upon these thoughts and received this instruc- 
tion, namely, that all love for whatever object — 
as, for instance, for the work on which I am now 
engaged — when the object is loved in itself and 
not as a means to the only love, which is to God 
and Jesus Christ, is a meretricious love. For this 
reason also this love is always compared in the 
Word of God to whoredom. This I have also ex- 
perienced in myself. But when love to God is 
man's chief love, then he does not entertain for 

**5 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

these objects any other kind of love than that of 
promoting thereby his love of God." 

As thoughts on religion filled his mind he be- 
came full of zeal to instruct others. " Afterward 
I seemed to say to myself that the Lord Himself 
will instruct me. For, as I discovered, I am in 
such a state that I know nothing on this subject 
except that Christ must be all in all, or God 
through Christ, so that we of ourselves cannot 
contribute the least toward it, and still less strive 
for it : wherefore it is best to surrender at discre- 
tion, and were it possible to be altogether passive 
in this matter, it would be a state of perfection. 
I saw also in a vision how some beautiful bread 
was presented to me on a plate. This was a pre- 
diction that the Lord Himself will instruct me, 
as soon as I have attained that state in which I 
shall know nothing, and in which all my precon- 
ceived notions will be removed from me ; which 
is the first state of learning : or in other words 
that I must first become a child, and that then I 
shall be able to be nurtured in knowledge, as is 
being done with me now." 

On the 27th of October he began the work on 
the Worship and Love of God, and laid aside, 

166 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

never to resume, The Animal Kingdom. "May 
God lead me in the right way I Christ said that 
I must not undertake anything without Him." 
" In the morning on awaking I fell into a swoon 
or fainting fit, similar to that which I experienced 
about six or seven years ago at Amsterdam, when 
I entered upon the Economy of the Animal King- 
dom ; but it was much more subtile, so that I was 
almost dead. It came upon me as soon as I saw 
the light. I threw myself upon my face, when it 
gradually passed off. In the mean time short, in- 
terrupted slumbers took possession of me ; so 
that this swoon or deliquium was deeper, but I 
soon got over it. This signifies that my head is 
being cleared, and is in fact being cleansed of all 
that would obstruct these thoughts — as was also 
the case the last time, because it gave me pene- 
tration, especially whilst writing. This was repre- 
sented to me now in that I appeared to write a 
fine hand." 

Coincidently with his increasing submission of 
heart to the Divine guidance, we find a growing 
sensitiveness or openness to spiritual impressions. 
Indeed, whether as a constitutional peculiarity or 
from depth of thought, Swedenborg had a cer- 

167 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

tain faculty of retrocession from physical activity 
when thinking deeply. In The Animal Kingdom 
he had remarked, " When the mind is thinking 
very intently and breathing tacitly and slowly, 
then the lungs elevated to a certain degree appear 
in like manner to keep silence, and to send out 
and draw in the air almost imperceptibly, so as not 
to disturb the analyses of the rational mind by 
any motion on their part/' And again, "If we 
carefully attend to profound thoughts, we shall 
find that when we draw breath, a host of ideas 
rush from beneath as through an open door into 
the sphere of thought, whereas when we hold the 
breath, and slowly let it out, we deeply keep the 
while in the tenor of our thought, and communi- 
cate as it were with the higher faculty of the soul 
— as I have observed in my own person times 
without number. Retaining or holding back the 
breath is equivalent to having intercourse with 
the soul : attracting or drawing it in amounts to 
intercourse with the body." 

But it was long after spiritual manifestations 
began to occur to him before he thought of the 
possibility of conversing with spirits. Indeed, he 
knew nothing about spirits. He believed in the 

168 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

Holy Spirit and in the power of the devil. He 
believed in angels, but knew nothing of the world 
filled with the spirits and angels who had once 
been men. We see how gradually the knowledge 
came to him : — 

" October J to 6. I have noticed several times 
that there are various kinds of spirits. The One 
Spirit, which is that of Christ, is the only one 
that has all blessedness with it ; by other spirits 
man is enticed a thousand ways to follow them, 
but woe to those who do so. Another time Korah 
and Dathan occurred to me, who brought strange 
fire to the altar and could not offer it. Such is 
the case when a different fire is introduced than 
that which comes from Christ. I saw also some- 
thing like a fire coming to me. It is necessary 
therefore that a distinction should be made be- 
tween spirits, which however cannot be done 
except through Christ Himself and His Spirit. " 

Some years later, after referring to the sundry 
spiritual manifestations which we have already 
described, he says — 

"At last a spirit spoke a few words to me, 
when I was greatly astonished at his perceiving 
my thoughts. Afterward, when my mind was 

169 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

opened, I was greatly astonished that I could con- 
verse with spirits ; as the spirits were astonished 
that I should wonder. From this it may be con- 
cluded how difficult it is for man to believe that 
he is governed by the Lord through spirits, and 
how difficult it is for him to give up the opinion 
that he lives his own life of himself without the 
agency of spirit s." 

The date of this occurrence appears to have 
been the middle of April, 1745, while still en- 
gaged perhaps on The Worship and Love of God. 
The fullest account preserved is given by his friend 
Robsahm, who says that in answer to his own 
inquiry where and how it was granted him to see 
and hear what takes place in the other world, 
Swedenborg answered — 

" I was in London, and dined rather late at the 
inn where I was in the habit of dining and where 
I had my own room. My thoughts were engaged 
on the subjects we have been discussing. I was 
hungry and ate with a good appetite. Toward the 
close of the meal I noticed a sort of dimness be- 
fore my eyes ; this became denser, and I then saw 
the floor covered with the most horrid crawling 
reptiles, such as snakes, frogs, and similar crea- 

170 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

tures. I was amazed, for I was perfectly conscious 
and my thoughts were clear. At last the darkness 
increased still more ; but it disappeared all at once, 
and I then saw a man sitting in the corner of 
the room : as I was then alone I was very much 
frightened at his words ; for he said, 'Eat not so 
much! All became black again before my eyes, 
but immediately it cleared away and I found my- 
self alone in the room." 

That this "man" was a spirit appears from 
Swedenborg's statement about his astonishment 
when a spirit first spoke a few words to him, and 
from Robsahm's own statement that this account 
was given in answer to his inquiry where and how 
he first came to see and hear spirits. It would seem 
then that Robsahm has made a little confusion 
in what he goes on to say about the same man's 
appearing the following night. And yet as, ac- 
cording to Swedenborg, when the Lord appears 
to angels and men, He does so by filling an an- 
gel with His presence and speaking through his 
mouth, it may be that it was the same angel 
from the Lord who had been present with him 
in the spiritual thoughts on which he was en- 
gaged in the day-time, and then warned him not 

171 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

to yield too much to the demands of the body, 
and again in the night instructed him as to the 
labors for which the Lord was preparing him — 
first seeming as a man, giving human admonition, 
and then as the Lord, uttering His commands. 
According to Robsahm, Swedenborg continued — 
" I went home, and during the night the same 
man revealed himself to me again, but I was not 
frightened now. He then said that he was the 
Lord God, the Creator of the world, and the 
Redeemer, and that He had chosen me to unfold 
to men the spiritual sense of the Scripture, and 
that He Himself would show to me what I should 
write on this subject. That same night also were 
opened to me, so that I became thoroughly con- 
vinced of their reality, the world of spirits, heaven, 
and hell ; and I recognized there many acquaint- 
ances of every condition in life. From that day I 
gave up the study of all worldly science and la- 
bored in spiritual things, according as the Lord 
had commanded me to write. Afterward the Lord 
opened my eyes, very often daily, so that in mid- 
day I could see into the other world, and in a 
state of perfect wakefulness converse with angels 
and spirits." 

172 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

The remarkable absence of dignity and circum- 
stance, such as imagination would invent, in this 
first introduction to the sight and hearing of the 
other world, witnesses nothing against its plain 
truth. We may wonder that the first announce- 
ment should be so simple a prohibition. On this 
Swedenborg says not a word. We have no reason 
to suppose him an inordinate eater ; but doubt- 
less in hunger he gave himself up for the time to 
the body's demand for satisfaction, and his mind 
fell from its high thoughts. The spirits or angels 
with him would perceive his fall and would, if 
opportunity were given, rebuke him. Fasting as 
well as prayer is the means of release from selfish- 
ness and evil. With Swedenborg there had been 
reformation of life, and then internal regenera- 
tion of a very deep kind. This regeneration must 
needs work outward till it cleansed the whole 
life, more perfectly, because from internal ground, 
than the first reformation could do. It may well 
be that the last stronghold of selfish spirits, not 
yet given up to the Lord of all, was that of out- 
ward sense. So our Lord Himself finished the 
work of purifying His humanity by overcoming 
the resistance of the body. So the last thing He 

i73 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

did for the disciples, before giving to them the 
bread and the wine that represented His own 
life, was to wash their feet, that they might be 
clean every whit. So too, Swedenborg tells us, 
those who are internally prepared for heaven and 
who have been delivered from all evil except that 
which belongs to the infirmities of the body, are 
taken up into heaven immediately after death. 
That from this time forth he himself enjoyed a 
remarkable protection from spirits who would 
have excited vain thoughts about his own works 
and the grace vouchsafed him, is manifest in 
everything he wrote, if we except a certain florid- 
ity of style in this work already in hand on the 
Worship and Love of God, in which he himself 
later detected " somewhat of egotism." Dr. Wil- 
kinson well says of the change that now came 
over him — 

" Certainly, in turning from his foregone life 
to that which now occupies us, we seem to be 
treating of another person — of one on whom 
the great change has passed, who has tasted the 
blessings of death and disburdened his spiritual 
part, of mundane cares, sciences, and philosophies. 
The spring of his lofty flights in nature sleeps in 

*74 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

the dust beneath his feet. The liberal charm of 
his rhetoric is put off, never to be resumed. . . . 
It is a clear instance of disembodiment — of 
emancipation from a worldly lifetime ; and we 
have now to contemplate Swedenborg, still a 
mortal, as he rose into the other world. From 
that elevation he as little recurred to his scien- 
tific life, though he had its spirit with him, as a 
freed soul to the body in the tomb : he only 
possessed it in a certain high memory, which 
offered its result to his new pursuits." 

All his mental labors had served as efficient 
training for the work now laid out for him. But 
what he had begun to find even in philosophic 
study — the need to lay down all thought of 
himself — became imperative, the sine qua non 
for submitting wholly to the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit in unfolding the true inner meaning 
of the Scriptures. He never forgot that the Lord 
alone could unloose the seals of the Book, and 
reveal Himself therein. He had already gained 
the truth that the material things of the body 
correspond in their use to the spiritual things 
of the soul, and that herein was the key to the 
true understanding of the Scriptures. But what 

*75 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

did he know of the spiritual things of the soul ? 
of the things of heaven, and of the Divine provi- 
dence therein ? In all this he was to be instructed 
by the Lord Himself in His Word, but with the 
aid of open communication with angels and spirits 
whose life this inner meaning is. 

It is now the year 1745. The time is ripening 
for the judgment. The clouds obscuring the face 
of the Son of Man are at their darkest. It is 
time for the dawn of the light that is to come. 
The light of the Lord's presence is to begin to 
be seen in His written Word. The age of mir- 
acles compelling belief is past. Man is to be in- 
structed in an orderly, rational manner. One 
mind has been prepared and taught its mission. 
Through its labors the light is to have a point of 
diffusion on earth, and still more by ready com- 
munication in the spirit world among the multi- 
tudes there gathered who clung to their erroneous 
interpretations of Scripture, from which they 
could not be released until the unsealing of the 
Book by the Lamb. That this unsealing should 
be, not an instantaneous, but a gradual process, 
and that it should have effect in the world where 
the letter of the Book belongs, is in keeping with 

176 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

the orderly, gradual course of the Divine provi- 
dence. Twelve years were devoted by Sweden- 
borg to writing and publishing what was revealed 
to him in the Scriptures, before the judgment in 
the world of spirits was seen by him to come to 
its fulfilment. 

Though assured of the Divine sanction and 
aid in the office intrusted to him, Swedenborg 
entered upon the task in natural and scientific 
manner He procured the best editions of the 
Scriptures in the original languages, studied them 
diligently from beginning to end time after time, 
and then began making short notes — Adversaria 
— much as do ordinary commentators, together 
with several Biblical indexes for future use. All 
this was preliminary study, not for print, occupy- 
ing nearly two years. In 1747 he was ready for 
the service required of him and prepared for the 
press the first volume of his Arcana Ccelestia, in 
which he unfolds verse by verse the internal con- 
tent of the first fifteen chapters of Genesis. This 
was the beginning of the fulfilment of his mis- 
sion, the nature of which is set forth in the intro- 
duction to the volume : — 

" I. That the Word of the Old Testament con- 
177 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

tains arcana of heaven, and that all and each of 
the things therein regard the Lord, His heaven, 
the Church, faith, and the things which are of 
faith, no mortal apprehends from the letter ; for 
from the letter or the sense of the letter no one 
sees anything else than that they regard in gen- 
eral the external things of the Jewish Church ; 
when yet there are everywhere internal things 
which are nowhere manifest in the external, ex- 
cept a very few which the Lord revealed and 
explained to the Apostles ; as, that sacrifices sig- 
nify the Lord, that the land of Canaan and Jeru- 
salem signify heaven, whence Canaan and Jerusa- 
lem are called heavenly and Paradise. 

"II. But that all things and each, yea the most 
particular, even to the least jot, signify and in- 
volve spiritual and heavenly things, the Christian 
world is hitherto profoundly ignorant, and so it 
has little regard for the Old Testament. Yet the 
truth might be known merely from this, that 
the Word, because it is the Lord's and from the 
Lord, could in no wise be given without contain- 
ing interiorly such things as are of heaven, of 
the Church, and of faith; not otherwise could it 
be called the Word of the Lord, nor could it be 

178 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

said that there is any life in it ; for whence is its 
life unless from those things which are of life ? 
that is, unless from this, that all and each of the 
things in it have reference to the Lord, who is 
the very Life itself ? Wherefore whatsoever does 
not interiorly regard Him, does not live ; nay, 
whatever expression in the Word does not involve 
Him, or in its own manner relate to Him, is not 
Divine. 

" III. Without such life the Word as to the 
letter is dead ; for it is with the Word as with 
man, who, as is known in the Christian world, is 
external and internal ; the external man separate 
from the internal is the body, and thus dead ; but 
the internal is what lives and gives to the exter- 
nal to live. The internal man is the soul. Thus 
the Word as to the letter alone is as the body 
without the soul. 

" IV. From the sense of the letter alone, when 
the mind is fixed in it, can in no wise be seen 
that it contains such things ; as in this first part 
of Genesis, from the sense of the letter nothing 
else is known than that it treats of the creation 
of the world and of the Garden of Eden, which 
is called Paradise ; also of Adam as the first 

179 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

created man : who imagines anything more ? But 
that these things contain arcana which have never 
hitherto been revealed, will be sufficiently evident 
from what follows ; and indeed that the first 
chapter of Genesis in the internal sense treats of 
the New Creation of man, or of his Regener- 
ation, in general, and of the Most Ancient 
Church in particular ; and indeed in such manner 
that there is not the least particle of an expres- 
sion that does not represent, signify, and involve 
these things. 

" V. But that such is the case no mortal can 
ever know unless from the Lord. For this reason 
it is permitted to state at the outset that of the 
Lord's mercy it has been granted me now for 
several years to be constantly and continuously in 
the company of spirits and angels, to hear them 
speaking and in turn to speak with them ; hence 
it has been given me to hear and see astonish- 
ing things which are in the other life, which have 
never come to the knowledge of any man, nor into 
his idea. I have there been instructed concerning 
different kinds of spirits, concerning the state of 
souls after death, concerning hell or the lament- 
able state of the unfaithful, concerning heaven 

180 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

or the most happy state of the faithful, especially 
concerning the doctrine of faith which is acknow- 
ledged in the whole heaven ; on which subjects 
by the Divine mercy of the Lord many things 
will be said in the following pages. " 

Following this introduction is printed the whole 
of the first chapter of Genesis in Latin. Then is 
given a summary of the contents of the chapter 
in the internal sense : — 

"The six days, or times, which are so many 
successive states of man's regeneration, are in 
general as follows : — 

" The first state is that which precedes, both 
from infancy and immediately before regenera- 
tion, and is called a void, emptiness, and thick 
darkness. And the first movement, which is the 
mercy of the Lord, is the spirit of God moving 
itself upon the faces of the waters. 

" The second state is when distinction is made 
between the things which are the Lord's and 
those which are man's own ; those which are the 
Lord's are called in the Word ' remains,' and are 
here especially the knowledges of faith which man 
has acquired from infancy, which are stored up 
and are not manifest before he comes into this 

181 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

state. This state seldom exists at the present day 
without temptation, misfortune, or grief, which 
cause the things of the body and the world, or 
his own, to become quiet and as it were die. Thus 
the things of the external man are separated from 
those of the internal : in the internal are the re- 
mains stored up by the Lord for this time and 
this use. 

" The third state is that of repentance, in which 
from the internal man he speaks piously and de- 
voutly, and brings forth good things, as the works 
of charity, but which are nevertheless inanimate 
because he regards them as from himself. These 
are called the tender grass, then the herb yielding 
seed, and afterward the tree yielding fruit. 

" The fourth state is when he is affected by 
love and illumined by faith; he before indeed 
spoke pious things and brought forth good things, 
but from a state of temptation and distress, not 
from faith and charity. These therefore, love and 
faith, are now enkindled in the internal man, and 
are called the two great lights. 

" The fifth state is, that he speaks from faith 
and thereby confirms himself in truth and good ; 
the things which he then brings forth are ani- 

182 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

mate, and are called the fishes of the sea and the 
birds of the heavens. 

" The sixth state is when from faith and thence 
from love he speaks true things and does good 
things ; the things which he then brings forth are 
called the living soul and creature. And because 
he then begins to act from love also, as well as 
from faith, he becomes a spiritual man, which is 
called an image of God. His spiritual life is de- 
lighted and sustained by the things that are of the 
knowledges of faith and of the works of charity, 
which are called his food ; and his natural life is 
delighted and sustained by the things that are 
of the body and the senses ; from which there 
is a combat until love reigns and he becomes a 
celestial man. 

"They who are regenerated do not all arrive 
at this state, but some, and the greatest part at 
this day, only to the first ; some only to the sec- 
ond ; some to the third, the fourth, and the fifth ; 
few to the sixth, and scarce any to the seventh." 

The seventh state, here but alluded to, is de- 
scribed in the next chapter, in the explanation 
of the seventh day. After this summary of the 
contents of the first chapter, he begins with the 

183 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

particular unfolding of the internal sense, verse 
by verse, clause by clause, premising that — 

" In the following pages by the Lord is meant 
solely the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ; 
and He is called Lord without the other names. 
He is acknowledged and adored as Lord in the 
entire heaven, because He has all power in the 
heavens and in the earth. He commanded also 
saying, ' Ye call Me Lord, and ye say rightly, for 
I am' (Johnxiii. 13). And after the resurrection 
the disciples called Him Lord. 

"Through the whole heaven they know no 
other Father than the Lord, because they are One, 
as He said : * I am the way, the truth, and the life/ 
Philip saith, * Show us the Father/ Jesus saith 
to him, ' Am I so long time with you, and yet 
hast thou not known Me, Philip ? He that hath 
seen Me hath seen the Father : how sayest thou 
then, show us the Father? Believest thou not 
that I am in the Father and the Father in Me ? 
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the 
Father in Me ' (John xiv. 6-1 1)/' 

Twenty-six octavo pages are given to the expli- 
cation of this first chapter, and then it is said — 

"This then is the internal sense of the Word, 
184 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

its very life, which does not at all appear from 
the sense of the letter; but the arcana are so 
many that volumes would not be sufficient for 
unfolding them. Here only a few are declared, 
and such as may prove that regeneration is here 
treated of, and that this proceeds from the ex- 
ternal man to the internal. Thus the angels un- 
derstand the Word. They know nothing at all 
which is of the letter, not even one word of what 
it proximately signifies, still less the names of 
countries, cities, rivers, and persons, which occur 
so frequently in the historic and prophetic parts. 
They have only an idea of the things signified 
by words and names ; as, by Adam in Paradise 
they have a perception of the Most Ancient 
Church, and not of the Church itself, but of the 
faith toward the Lord of that Church; by Noah, 
the Church remaining with posterity and con- 
tinued to the time of Abram ; by Abraham, not 
the man who lived, but the saving faith which he 
represented ; and so on. Thus they perceive things 
spiritual and celestial, altogether abstracted from 
words and names.' ' 

An appropriate beginning is this of the work 
to which Swedenborg was to devote the remaining 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

thirty years of his life — that of causing the face 
of the Son of Man to be seen in the clouds of 
the letter of His Word. To this task he brought 
certain important qualifications : — 

First, inherited reverence for the Scriptures, 
as the Word of God. Second, intimacy therewith 
by daily reading and meditation. Third, convic- 
tion through philosophic study that all material 
things are the representatives or correspondents 
of spiritual things, and that this correspondence is 
the key to the understanding of Holy Scripture. 
Fourth, knowledge by experience that truth must 
be sought for its own sake, with no thought of 
merit or personal advantage. Fifth, certainty that 
he was Divinely called to this service and would 
be Divinely protected and guided in it. Sixth, ex- 
perience of the enlightenment given to the self- 
denying seeker of truth for the truth's sake. 
Seventh, living consciousness of the presence of 
the Lord in the inner sense of His Word — as 
described in his last published work: — "To the 
end that the Lord might be continually present, 
He has disclosed to me the spiritual sense of His 
Word, in which Divine truth is in its light, and 
in this light He is constantly present/' 

186 



OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT 

To all this was added the ineffable grace of 
being able to see and converse with the angels 
of heaven, who perceive in the Scriptures all the 
inner meaning applicable to their own capacity 
and needs. Nevertheless in his unfolding of the 
Word for the use of men he was not, he says, 
permitted to take anything from any angel, but 
solely from the Word itself under the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit. With all this guidance and 
never without, Swedenborg used scientific method 
in his studies, everything he wrote having passed 
through the alembic of his rational thought, to 
the end that it might be accepted by the rational 
thought of men. Thus throughout his explications 
of the Word he is continually drawing and de- 
monstrating the internal meaning by citation of 
divers other passages in which the expression 
in question has the meaning he now assigns to 
it. This was the purpose of his indexes. And 
further, as he goes on, he continually refers back 
to previous numbers in which the same subject 
has been treated. By these constant citations and 
references it is that his volumes of explications 
become so bulky, the Arcana unfolded in Genesis 
and Exodus making in English twenty volumes. 

187 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Interspersed, however, with the chapters, are short 
treatises on many kindred subjects, some doctrinal 
and others descriptive of the other world. 

The original Latin edition of the Arcana was 
completed in 1758 in eight large quarto volumes, 
published in London. During this period of eleven 
years nothing else was published by the author, 
and little else written save many volumes of notes 
of his spiritual experience. These have since been 
published by his friends both in Latin and in 
English, under the title of his Spiritual Diary, and 
the most important of their contents are to be 
found here and there as needed in his own pub- 
lications. 



VIII 

" THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED " AND 
OTHER WORKS 

In the Arcana of the Books of Moses, and col- 
laterally in the other Books of the Old Testament, 
Swedenborg had found a constant foreshadowing 
of the eventual coming of the Lord to dwell with 
men their God. In other terms, he had seen the 
inner Word to be the revelation of the Divine 
purpose toward mankind, inducing always the 
Divine image and likeness, and in due time to be 
fully accomplished by this purpose, or the Word, 
becoming flesh and dwelling among men. This 
great event in the history of mankind we are wont 
to regard as wholly completed in the Gospel 
period, while our Lord remained visible in the 
flesh. But this was only the beginning, the intro- 
duction to the Lord's dwelling with men in their 
souls, their hearts, and even in their flesh. By 
coming down, or coming forth from within, into 
all the degrees of human life, even to the flesh, 
in the single form taken from woman, the Divine 

189 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Purpose, the Word, the Divine Will toward men, 
entered into human clothing and became forever 
present and operative with man, as he will accept 
it for his own — not indeed in continued visible 
presence, which could be but in one spot and 
there compelling, but throughout the world for 
all time in the record of the Gospel and within 
the heart as the Holy Spirit to those that love 
His commandments and do them. 

This inner presence became real to the disciples 
after the outward presence left them, and inspired 
them to preach and heal in His name. But it was 
less and less realized in succeeding* generations 
till — even as the Lord had foretold — all percep- 
tion of it was lost. In fact, the understanding of 
it by the first disciples was not what would have 
been given if they could have received it. They 
thought of their Lord as they had seen Him — 
as a Divine Person, the. Only-begotten Son, in 
the bosom and at the right hand of the Father. 
It was with this idea that Judas wondered how 
He could manifest Himself to them and not to 
the world. And we may doubt whether any un- 
derstood the Lord's answer — " If a man love Me, 
he will keep My word ; and My Father will love 

190 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

him, and We will come unto him and make Our 
abode with him." For all the pains their Lord 
had taken to make them understand that He was 
but the manifestation of the Father's will in their 
human degree of life, they could not realize that 
when He had laid down the human form taken 
from the mother Mary, He would thereafter be 
with them and all who would love Him — not in 
limited bodily form, but as the Father's will in the 
Divinely human form of thought and feeling, 
which is the Word in essence and which He had 
revealed to them in the flesh. 

This Divine Human presence manifesting itself 
by the Holy Spirit, calling all things to our re- 
membrance whatsoever He has said unto us in all 
the Scriptures, the Church has been slow to ap- 
prehend. Only in love can it be apprehended. An 
age must pass of faulty apprehension in which 
the love of the many will wax cold. But John 
should endure to the end. There should yet be 
gleanings of the olive, a few berries in the topmost 
boughs of the Church, some of the love repre- 
sented by John, when the time should be fulfilled 
for the new recognition of their Lord in His 
Word. 

191 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

John in vision saw the Son of Man in the midst 
of seven golden candlesticks, with all heavenly- 
light and love. The golden candlesticks, accord- 
ing to Swedenborg, represent the acceptance in 
the heavens of this the Lord's light in His Di- 
vine Human manifestation. John's falling at His 
feet as dead represents the utter abasement of all 
merely human conceit when this Divine presence 
is apprehended in the Word. John as represent- 
ing the loving acceptance of the Divine Human 
presence represents also the teaching of this pre- 
sence, and thus his addresses to the churches re- 
present the effect of this teaching, or doctrine, 
on the various states of those of the Church who 
are in the end to compose it in its new age — that 
of the New Jerusalem. In the fifth chapter of his 
vision the opening of the Book by the Lamb de- 
scribes the effect of its interior light on the inte- 
riors of men in both worlds. Thus the Book is at 
once the book of the Word and the book of men's 
lives as it searches and judges them. And the 
remaining chapters are filled with the particulars 
of this judgment, condemning and consigning to 
their homes those whose hearts and lives are op- 
posed to the Divine will, enlightening and enrol- 

192 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

ling in a new Christian heaven those whose hearts 
are open to this will. 

All the while that this true understanding of 
the Divine Human presence was descending from 
heaven into the world of spirits and executing the 
judgment there, Swedenborg was on earth re- 
cording both the judgment and the interior signi- 
ficance of the vision to John, in his "Apocalypse 
Explained. " The judgment he describes as being 
effected during the year 1757. In that year and 
the one or two following he was preparing this 
work for the press in four large volumes. At first 
the method pursued is that of the Arcana, giving 
the high internal explication of each verse and 
word, with abounding citations from other parts 
of the Word in confirmation, with their internal 
meaning. And as in the Arcana, though true 
doctrine is drawn from the Word in contrast 
with the false doctrine condemned, but little is 
said of the new church by which the true is to be 
held, and that little speaks of it as probably, like 
the first Christian, to be established among the 
Gentiles. When however he comes to the four- 
teenth chapter, he finds the woman encompassed 
with the sun and with the moon at her feet, to 

i93 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

represent the love for the Lord remaining in the 
Church, which was to bring forth the true doc- 
trine — the man-child — and to become the new 
stage of the Church. 

This becomes more and more apparent to him 
as he advances in the explication, and as he finds 
at the conclusion of the judgment a new heaven 
being formed of those from the Christian world 
who had in patience been awaiting the new light 
and now found their place in this heaven of the 
new church to be founded on earth. With this 
new understanding of the coming age of the 
Christian Church, as he came nearer its more 
particular description, he stayed his hand in the 
nineteenth chapter and laid this nearly completed 
work aside, not to be printed until by his friends 
after his death. Instead he now first published 
several smaller treatises, on " The Final Judg- 
ment/' on " Heaven and Hell," " The Earths in 
the Universe," and "The New Jerusalem and its 
Heavenly Doctrine." Then he took up the Apoc- 
alypse anew and in 1 766 produced a much smaller 
work entitled "The Apocalypse Revealed," omit- 
ting in great part the numerous citations from other 
parts of Scripture which, with their explication, 

194 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

made the former work so voluminous. And from 
the very beginning of this later work he treats of 
those of the Christian Church of the first age 
who on being enlightened are to form the Church 
in its new age — the New Church of the New 
Jerusalem, the genuine Christian Church. The 
descent of the light of the Divine Human pres- 
ence through heaven effecting the judgment in 
the world of spirits and for a beginning on this 
earth, was already bringing this enlightenment 
and was forming the new heaven. 

The part taken in this judgment and enlight- 
enment by Swedenborg's reception of this new 
light from the inner sense of the Word, with its 
publication and demonstration from the Word in 
the letter, is not set forth by him, but may in 
some degree be inferred. We have seen the doc- 
trine of salvation by faith alone attacked by him 
from boyhood. It was the dominant power in the 
Protestant Church of his day, and his attacks 
which pervaded his theological works aroused the 
hostility of the Swedish clergy in this world, as 
well as of the numberless supporters of this doc- 
trine in the world of spirits. Of the virulence 
with which his demonstration of the falsity of this 

i95 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

doctrine was attacked, and of the effects in the 
world of spirits of this demonstration from the 
Scriptures, a striking example is related by him 
at the close of his explication of the eleventh 
chapter of the Apocalypse : — 

" I was once seized suddenly with a disease that 
seemed to threaten my life. I suffered excru- 
ciating pain all over my head ; a pestilent smoke 
ascended from that Jerusalem [in the world of 
spirits] which is called Sodom and Egypt ; half 
dead with the severity of my sufferings, I expected 
every moment would be my last. Thus I lay in 
my bed three days and a half ; my spirit was re- 
duced to this state, and my body in consequence. 
And then I heard the voices of persons about me, 
saying, ' Lo, he who preached repentance for the 
remission of sins, and the man Christ alone, lies 
dead in the streets of our city/ And they asked 
some of the clergy whether he was worthy of 
burial ; who answered, ' No, let him lie to be 
gazed at/ And they passed to and fro, and mocked. 
All this befell me, of a truth, when I was writing 
the explanation of this chapter of the Apocalypse. 
Then were heard many shocking speeches of scoff- 
ers who said, ' How can repentance be performed 

196 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

without faith ? And how can the man Christ be 
adored as God ? Since we are saved of free grace 
without any merit of our own, what need is there 
of any faith but this — that God the Father sent 
the Son to take away the curse of the law, to 
impute his merit to us, and so to justify us in His 
sight, and absolve us from our sins by the de- 
claration of a priest, and then give the Holy Ghost 
to operate all good in us ? Are not these doctrines 
agreeable to Scripture, and consistent with reason 
also ? ' All this the crowd who stood by agreed to 
and applauded. I heard what passed without the 
power of replying, being almost dead ; but after 
three days and a half my spirit recovered, and 
being in the spirit I left the street and went into 
the city, and said again, 'Do the work of repent- 
ance and believe in Christ, and your sins will be 
remitted and ye will be saved ; but otherwise ye 
will perish. Did not the Lord Himself preach 
repentance for the remission of sins, and that men 
should believe in Him? Did not He enjoin His 
disciples to preach the same ? Is not a full and 
fatal security of life the sure consequence of this 
dogma of your faith ? ' But they replied, ' What 
idle talk ! Has not the Son made satisfaction ? 

197 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

And does not the Father impute it to us, and 
justify us who have believed in it ? Thus are we 
led by the spirit of grace ; how then can sin have 
place in us, and what power has death over us ? 
Do you comprehend this Gospel, thou preacher 
of sin and repentance ? ' At that instant a voice 
was heard from heaven, saying, ' What is the faith 
of an impenitent man but a dead faith ? The end 
is come, the end is come upon you that are secure, 
blameless in your own eyes, justified in your own 
faith, ye devils.' And suddenly a deep gulf was 
opened in the midst of the city, which spread itself 
far and wide, and the houses fell one upon another 
and were swallowed up ; and presently water began 
to bubble up from the wide whirlpool, and over- 
flowed the waste. 

" When they were thus overwhelmed and, to 
appearance, drowned, I was desirous to know 
their condition in the deep ; and a voice from 
heaven said to me, 'Thou shalt see and hear/ 
And straightway the waters in which they seemed 
to be drowned, disappeared ; for waters in the spir- 
itual world are correspondences, and hence appear 
to surround those who are in falsities. Then they 
appeared to me in a sandy place, where there were 

198 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

large heaps of stones, amongst which they were 
running, and lamenting that they were cast out of 
their great city; and they lifted up their voices 
and cried, ' Why has all this befallen us ? Are we 
not by our faith clean, pure, just, and holy ? . . . 
Have we not made reconciliation, propitiation, ex- 
piation, and are thus absolved,washed, and cleansed 
from sins ? And is not the curse of the law taken 
away by Christ ? Why then are we cast down here 
as the damned ? We have been told by a presump- 
tuous preacher of sin in our great city, " Believe in 
Christ and repent." But have we not believed in 
Christ while we believed in His merit ? And have 
we not done the work of repentance while we 
confessed ourselves sjpners ? Why then has all 
this befallen us ? ' But immediately a voice from 
one side said to them, 'Do you know any one sin 
that is in you ? Have you ever examined your- 
selves ? Have you in consequence shunned any 
evil as a sin against God ? For he who does not 
shun sin, remains in it ; and is not sin the Devil ? 
Ye are therefore of the class of whom the Lord 
said, Then shall ye begin to say, " We have eaten 
and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught 
in our streets;" but He shall say, " I tell you I 

*99 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

know you not, whence ye are ; depart from Me, 
all ye workers of iniquity." . . . Depart ye, 
therefore, every one to his own place ; you see 
the openings into those caverns ; enter, and there 
work shall be given each of you to do, and after- 
wards food according to your work ; but should 
you refuse at present to enter, the demands of 
hunger will speedily compel you.' " 

This, though not written for the purpose, bears 
plain testimony to the part which the opening of 
the Word to and through Swedenborg himself 
had in the diffusion of the light of the judgment. 

And what were the effects of the judgment : 
Through the vast multitude of spirits gathered 
for harvest in the world of spirits the Gospel was 
preached anew with light from its Divine Author. 
As at His first coming, those who had done well 
welcomed the light and were gathered by it into 
its home, while those who had done evil fled from 
the light and were gathered unto their like in hell. 
Thus the atmosphere was cleared above and about 
men's souls ; and from that time forward when- 
ever the Word of God is read with simple heart, 
the light of heaven, which is none other than that 
of the Holy Spirit, flows into the mind and en- 

200 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

ables it to see with some clearness the true pur- 
port of what is read. How truly does this explain 
the return of the Christian mind to the simple 
Gospel and the right understanding thereof ! 

The new heaven was formed of those gathered 
by the judgment into the fold of the Good Shep- 
herd. The new earth, its child in the world, is 
being born and nurtured. But the holy city, the 
new Jerusalem, what is that ? A city is the abode 
of a community of men, with separate dwellings 
but with common streets in which they walk in 
concert, and public grounds and buildings for 
common interests. The city of men's minds is 
a system of thought or, spiritually speaking, of 
doctrine, in which, while each mind has its pecu- 
liar abode, the general lines are held in common, 
with common centres for assembling, for common 
interests. And as in the centre of a city resides 
its government, so in the centre of a common 
cult or doctrine resides its object of worship, its 
Lord. So was it with the old Jerusalem, with the 
Law of God in its central most holy place. So is 
it with the new. The Holy City is to be the new 
Christian faith, the resurrected faith, as declared 
in the Gospel, and as newly called to our remem- 

201 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

brance and made clear by the light of the Holy 
Spirit. It has no need of the sun [of earth], 
neither of the moon to shine in it ; for the glory 
of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof. 

For continuity of subject we have taken Swe- 
denborg's Apocalypse Revealed in connection 
with his Apocalypse Explained. But after laying 
aside the latter he wrote various smaller works, 
of which he published The Doctrine of the New 
Jerusalem concerning the Lord, The Doctrine of 
the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scrip- 
ture, The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, 
and The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concern- 
ing Faith ; also a Continuation concerning the 
Final Judgment. These were but small treatises. 
In 1763 he published the larger work entitled 
"Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and 
the Divine Wisdom/' and in the same or the next 
year that entitled " Angelic Wisdom concerning 
the Divine Providence/ ' In these two most im- 
portant works we find the spiritual philosophy of 
the New Church. Then came the Apocalypse Re- 
vealed, 1 764- 1 766, followed in 1767 by "The De- 
lights of Wisdom concerning Marriage Love." It 

202 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

is noteworthy that this last named work was the 
first of his theological works to which the author 
attached his name, " By Emanuel Swedenborg, a 
Swede." But at the end of the volume he appends 
a " List of the Theological Works published by 
me," adding that they are still for sale at his print- 
ers and publishers in London. In the same style he 
affixed his name to the " Summary Exposition of 
the Doctrine of the New Church which is meant 
by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse." This 
was a small tract preliminary to his last important 
and crowning work entitled " The True Christian 
Religion, containing the entire theology of the 
New Church foretold by Daniel, chap, vi I. 13, 14, 
and in the Apocalypse, xxi. 1, 2: by Emanuel 
Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." 
This appellation he told a friend that he had asked 
and received permission to affix. The original vol- 
ume in Latin was published at Amsterdam in the 
year 1 771, in a quarto of 541 pages. 

This monumental work contains far more than 
a mere statement of the doctrine of the true Chris- 
tian Church. It contains ample exposition of every 
particular, with confutation of all opposing doc- 
trine. And between the chapters are Memorabilia 

203 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

of things seen and heard in the other world, es- 
pecially of important discussions held in the world 
of spirits on the very points of doctrine considered 
in the chapters. We cannot better close this sketch 
of Swedenborg's theological works than with what 
he sets forth at the beginning of this last great 
work as "the face, gate, and summary " of this 
new Christian doctrine : — 

" The faith of the New Heaven and the New 
Church in the Universal Form is this : — That 
the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into 
the world that He might subjugate the hells and 
glorify His Human ; and that without this no 
mortal could have been saved ; and that those are 
saved who believe in Him. 

" It is said in the universal form because this 
is the universal of faith ; and a universal of faith 
is that which will be in the whole and every part. 
It is a universal of faith that God is one in essence 
and in person, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and 
that He is the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ. 
It is a universal of faith that no mortal could have 
been saved unless the Lord had come into the 
world. It is a universal of faith that He came into 
the world that He might remove hell from man 
204 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

and that He did remove it by means of combats 
against it and victories over it ; thus He subju- 
gated it and reduced it to order and under obedi- 
ence to Himself. It is a universal of faith that He 
came into the world that He might glorify His 
Human which He assumed in the world, that is, 
might unite it to the Divine from which [it pro- 
ceeded] ; thus He holds hell in order and under 
obedience to Himself forever. Since this could 
not have been done but by means of temptations 
admitted into His Human, even to the last of 
them, and the last was the passion of the cross, 
therefore He underwent that temptation. These 
are the universals of faith concerning the Lord. 

" The universal of faith on the part of man is 
that he should believe in the Lord ; for by be- 
lieving in Him conjunction with Him is effected, 
by which is salvation. To believe in Him is to 
have confidence that He saves ; and because no 
one can have this confidence but he that lives well, 
therefore this also is meant by believing in Him." 

Such is Swedenborg's own summary of the 
doctrine for the new age of the Christian Church 
— the "True Christian Religion " — which it was 
his mission to draw from the letter of the Word 

205 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

of God, under the guidance of the inner heavenly 
content revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. There 
is nothing new or strange in the doctrine, for it 
is simply that of our Lord Himself, as recorded 
in the Gospel, now first clearly and rationally 
understood. The difficulty with the common in- 
terpretations of the Gospel has been the lack of 
clear distinction between that in our Lord which 
was of man and that which was of God. This dis- 
tinction is rightly understood only with experience 
in ourselves of the distinction between the natural 
man, which is of self and the world, and the spir- 
itual man, which is of God and of heaven — a 
distinction of which Paul well warned us. The 
life natural to man, into which he is born, is cen- 
tripetal, self-centred. The life of God which man 
is to receive for his own, in coming into the image 
and likeness of his Creator, is centrifugal, giving 
forth of itself endlessly for the blessing of others. 
Our Lord taught plainly the absolute necessity of 
conversion from the one life to the other in order 
to enter the kingdom of heaven. What has not 
been well understood is that within or above man's 
natural mind, with its necessary concern for him- 
self, he has an inner or superior spiritual mind, 

206 



THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 

at first undeveloped, but capable of being opened 
and becoming lord of the house : not by any effort 
of the natural, but by the inflowing Divine life, 
when by instruction or experience the natural has 
been made willing to subside into its appointed 
place of humble service. 

All this the Lord taught, not by words alone, 
but more emphatically by His own example, in 
Himself laying down the maternal human nature 
and living and speaking solely from the Divine 
Human nature within. It is this inner Divine 
Human life which He bade men recognize as the 
will of the Father, and in which He declared that' 
whoever had seen and known Him, had seen and 
known the Father. In this He desired men also 
to understand that whatever they should be en- 
abled to do of the Father's will, would be not of 
themselves, but of God. " Why callest thou Me 
good? None is good save One, that is, God." The 
comprehension of this Divine teaching was little 
possible to races just emerging from barbarism, 
or worse, from the profligacy of Roman civiliza- 
tion. What could they do in the way of renounc- 
ing their own will and accepting the Divine in its 
stead ? For the time, therefore, it was permitted 

207 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

them to regard the Lord Jesus as a Divine Being 
distinct from the Father, retaining His maternal 
human nature, which for consistency has been 
determined in the Roman Church to have been 
itself Divinely immaculate. On this Rock of the 
Divine Human of our Lord the Christian Church 
has split and been shattered to pieces. The true 
understanding of this Corner-stone on which the 
Church is to be rebuilt is that the maternal hu- 
man, after serving its temporary purpose as a 
recipient, and in itself being rejected, no longer 
existed. But the Divine Life which had in this 
maternal human entered fully into the life of men, 
had thereby acquired a perpetual Divine Human 
presence with man, in which it became God-with- 
us, our known Father in heaven. 



IX 

MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

The outward manner of life of one whose inner 
life is passed in open communication with spirits 
and angels, cannot but be of interest. Happily in 
Swedenborg's case we are not without abundant 
information. In 1748 at sixty years of age he 
went to London to put to press the first volume 
of the Arcana, and there for similar purpose he 
made his home much of the time until his death, 
twenty-four years later. In 1750 John Lewis, his 
publisher, in the advertisement of the second 
volume of the Arcana said — 

"Though the author of the Arcana Ccelestia 
is undoubtedly a very learned and great man, and 
his works highly esteemed by the literati, yet he is 
no less distinguished for his modesty than for his 
great talents, so that he will not suffer his name 
to be made public. But though I am positively 
forbid to discover that, yet I hope he will excuse 
me if I venture to mention his benign and gener- 
ous qualities. How he bestowed his time and la- 

209 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

bors in former years I am not certainly informed, 
though I have heard by those who have been long 
acquainted with him that they were employed in the 
same manner as I am going to relate ; but what 
I have been an eye-witness to, I can declare with 
certain truth ; and therefore I do aver that this 
gentleman, with indefatigable pains and labor, 
spent one whole year in studying and writing the 
first volume of the Arcana Ccelestia, was at the 
expense of two hundred pounds to print it, and 
also advanced two hundred pounds more for the 
printing of this second volume ; and when he had 
done this, he gave express orders that all the 
money that should arise in the sale of this large 
work should be given toward the charge of the 
propagation of the Gospel. He is so far from de- 
siring to make a gain of his labors, that he will 
not receive one farthing back of the four hundred 
pounds he has expended ; and for that reason his 
works will come exceedingly cheap to the public. " 
In the spring of 1750 Swedenborg returned 
again to Stockholm, having spent the intervening 
time partly in London, but mostly in Holland. In 
Stockholm he remained, tending his garden and 
busily employed on the Arcana. We hear no 

210 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

more of him at the College of Mines, but for some 
time yet we have an occasional paper presented 
to the Diet. A paper of much importance had been 
presented by him in 1734, in opposition to a party 
plan of declaring war against Russia, which is 
supposed to have had great weight in maintaining 
peace at that time. A fragment of a memorial 
addressed by him to the Diet in 1755 urges the 
necessity of limiting the distillation of whiskey, 
" that is, if the consumption of the whiskey can- 
not be done away with altogether, which would 
be more desirable for the country's welfare and 
morality than all the income which could be real- 
ized from so pernicious a drink.' ' In addition, the 
memorial urges a recall of the power granted to 
the Bank to grant loans on all property in the 
country, which he regarded as one of the causes 
of the bankruptcy into which it was drifting. By 
these means Swedenborg hoped a check might 
be put on the drain from the country, as shown 
by the excess of imports over exports, and the 
balance of trade be restored in its favor, 

In 1760 also, on occasion of a financial panic in 
S,weden, as a member of a committee on Finance, 
he presented to the Diet a memorial showing the 

211 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

necessity of curtailing the issue by the Bank, of 
loans on any other property than gold and silver ; 
of gradually diminishing the amount of certificates 
of indebtedness that had been issued on other 
property, by requiring the debtors to pay each year 
a certain percentage of their debt in addition to 
the interest ; of gradual redemption by the Bank 
of all other notes than those payable in coin ; of 
prohibiting for the time all exportation of copper, 
and requiring the Bank to hoard it in anticipation 
of resumption ; of abolishing the monopoly of the 
Iron-Office ; and finally of farming out the dis- 
tillation of whiskey, as a means of revenue, if the 
consumption of the pernicious drink could not be 
done away with altogether. 

Not long after, in refutation of some charges 
against the Government, Swedenborg addressed 
the Diet in these terms : — 

" Every human being is inclined by nature, and 
nothing is easier and pleasanter for him to do than 
to find faults in others, and to pass an unfavorable 
judgment upon them, inasmuch as all of us are 
by nature inclined to see the mote in our brother's 
eye and not to see the beam in our own eyes ; 
moreover we are apt to strain out a gnat and to 

212 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

swallow a camel. All proud and evil-disposed men 
place their prudence in finding fault with and 
blaming others ; and all generous and truly Chris- 
tian souls place their prudence in judging all 
things according to circumstances, and hence in 
excusing such faults as may have arisen from 
weakness, and in inveighing against such evils as 
may have been done on purpose. The same also 
happens in a general way in that which concerns 
governments: faults, numberless faults may be 
found in all, so that volumes might be filled with 
them. Should I undertake to make known all the 
mistakes of which I have heard, and which I know 
from my own experience to have happened in 
England and Holland to the detriment of justice 
and the public good, I believe I might fill a whole 
book with lamentations ; when, nevertheless, those 
governments, together with our own in Sweden, 
are the very best in Europe, as every inhabitant, 
notwithstanding all the shortcomings which hap- 
pen there, is safe in his life and property, and no 
one is a slave, but they are all free men. The 
Honorable Houses of the Diet will allow me to 
go still higher : if in this world there should exist 
a heavenly government, consisting of men who 

213 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

had an angelic disposition, there would neverthe- 
less be in it faults caused by weakness, together 
with other shortcomings ; and if these were fer- 
reted out, reported, and exaggerated, this govern- 
ment too might be undermined by calumny, and 
thereby gradually a desire might be raised among 
the well-disposed to change and destroy it. The 
best government, and that which is most wisely 
arranged, is our own government in Sweden ; inas- 
much as all things are connected here as in a chain, 
and are joined together for the purpose of admin- 
istering justice from the highest leader to the 
lowest citizen/* 

Swedenborg spoke from much experience, hav- 
ing been in friendly relations with several kings 
and queens, an officer of the government thirty 
years in the College of Mines, and being in the 
Diet of the party which curtailed the royal power, 
retaining the supreme control in the Houses of 
the Diet themselves. This was in 1762. The next 
year his views prevailed and his first measure was 
passed, forbidding bank loans on movable property. 
The year after, however, against Swedenborg* s 
advice, a too sudden and radical measure was 
adopted and the whole ground was lost. 

214 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

Another matter that gave him concern about 
this time was the controversy between the Court 
and the Diet on behalf of the people. The latter 
party under the lead of Count Hopken and other 
senators had sustained the alliance of Sweden 
with France, against the wishes of the Royal 
family, which was allied to that of Prussia. The 
war that ensued was unfortunate, and Hopken 
and two colleagues were obliged to resign. In 
1 76 1 Swedenborg memorialized the Diet in strong 
terms, urging the necessity of maintaining intact 
the government, at once free and conservative, 
which they had hitherto enjoyed, resisting the 
encroachments of the Court, backed by that of 
Prussia, itself under the influence of intriguing 
Papacy, and maintaining sacred their alliance with 
France. In this view he strongly advised the re- 
storation of Hopken and his colleagues, as tried 
and faithful servants of Sweden — advice that 
was afterward followed. 

As stated by a Swedish authority — 
" Up to the time of his extreme old age Swe- 
denborg interested himself in the administrative, 
financial, and political affairs of his country. As 
a member of the House of Nobles, he was an in- 

21S 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

dependent member, supporting whatever he saw 
to be worthy of his own position and to be right 
and generally useful, without allowing himself to 
be influenced by the right or the left side. Like 
every true friend of liberty, he was opposed alike 
to despotism and to anarchy. His entrance into 
the House of Nobles was contemporaneous with 
the reestablishment of freedom in Sweden. Dur- 
ing his childhood and youth he had witnessed the 
misfortunes into which an unlimited monarchy 
had precipitated his country. He himself had 
seen the misery and distress which a war of 
eighteen years' duration, with dearly-bought vic- 
tories and bloody defeats, with decimated armies 
and bankrupt finances, attended by pestilence 
and famine, had brought upon it. Need we won- 
der, then, that Swedenborg was in favor of a con- 
stitution which set bounds to the arbitrary power 
and whims of a hitherto unlimited monarchy ; 
which prevented the dissolution of the country, 
and gradually changed discontent into satisfaction, 
at least among the majority of its citizens ? Swe- 
denborg enjoyed the good fortune envied by many, 
of having been able during half a century to in- 
fluence by his vote the resolutions passed for the 

216 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

welfare of his country, and of not giving up his 
place in the House of Nobles before the year 
1772, when death closed his eyes to the darkened 
prospects with which a change in the administra- 
tion threatened Sweden's independence. He thus 
belonged to the whole of that period of freedom 
which is valued so highly by many, and is made 
light of by others. With that period his political 
career began and ended.' ' * 

Thus it appears that Swedenborg, after as be- 
fore his introduction into his spiritual office and 
into visible heavenly companionship, was alive to 
the important questions of the day to which he 
was called by love for his country and his duty 
as a member of its Diet. With spiritual eyes open 
to all his spiritual surroundings, his natural eyes 
were wide open also to all real needs of this 
world. He lived much alone, as his constant ab- 
sorbing labors required, but he was not a recluse. 
He had many friends among statesmen and men 
of learning, with whom he enjoyed pleasant inter- 
course. His garden was his solace, and he took 
much pleasure in meeting young children, whom 
he loved to make happy. Of his friendly relations 

1 Nya Kyrkatty i, Sverige, part ii, p. 48. 
217 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

in his own country he wrote in answer to the in- 
quiries of an English friend in 1769 — 

" Moreover, all the bishops of my native coun- 
try, who are ten in number, and also the sixteen 
senators, and the rest of those highest in office, 
entertain feelings of affection for me ; from their 
affection they honor me, and I live with them on 
terms of familiarity, as a friend among friends — 
the reason of which is that they know I am in 
company with angels. Even the King and the 
Queen and the three princes, their sons, show me 
great favor. I was invited once by the King and 
Queen to dine with them at their own table, which 
honor is generally accorded only to those who are 
highest in office ; subsequently the Crown Prince 
granted me the same favor. They all desire me 
to return home ; wherefore I am far from appre- 
hending in my own country that persecution which 
you fear, and against which in your letter you 
desire in so friendly a manner to provide ; and if 
they choose to persecute me elsewhere, it can do 
me no harm." 

Of the esteem in which Swedenborg was held 
in Sweden the following letter gives a pleasing 
account. It was written by Count Anders Johan 

218 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

Von Hopken, 1 holding office under the Swedish 
Government equivalent to Prime Minister, to his 
friend General Tuxen, another friend of Sweden- 
borg's, who held important office under the Dan- 
ish Government at Elsinore. 

" I have not only known him these two and 
forty years, but also, some time since, daily fre- 
quented his company. A man who like me has 
lived long in the world, and even in an extensive 
career of life, must have had numerous opportu- 
nities of knowing men as to their virtues or vices, 
their weakness or strength ; and in consequence 
thereof I do not recollect to have known any 
man of more uniformly virtuous character than 
Swedenborg — always contented, never fretful or 
morose, though throughout his life his soul was 
occupied with sublime thoughts and speculations. 
He was a true philosopher and lived like one ; he 
labored diligently and lived frugally without sor- 
didness ; he travelled continually, and his travels 
cost him no more than if he had lived at home. 
He was gifted with a most happy genius and a 
fitness for every science, which made him shine 

1 Called in the Swedish Biographical Dictionary "The Swed- 
ish Tacitus." 

219 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

in all those which he embraced. He was without 
contradiction the most learned man in my country. 
In his youth he was a great poet : I have in my 
possession some remnants of his Latin poetry 
which Ovid would not have been ashamed to own. 
In his middle age his Latin was in an easy, ele- 
gant, and ornamental style ; in his latter years it 
was equally clear, but less elegant after he had 
turned his thoughts to spiritual subjects. He was 
well acquainted with Hebrew and Greek, an able 
and profound mathematician, a happy mechani- 
cian, of which he gave proof in Norway, where by 
an easy and simple method he transported the 
largest galleys over high mountains and rocks to 
a gulf where the Danish fleet was stationed. . . . 
He possessed a sound judgment upon all occa- 
sions ; he saw everything clearly and expressed 
himself well on every subject. The most solid 
memorials and the best penned at the Diet of 
1 76 1 on matters of finance, were presented by 
him. . . . 

"I once represented in rather a serious manner 
to this venerable man, that I thought he would 
do better not to mix with his beautiful writings so 
many 'memorable relations,' or things heard and 

220 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

seen in the spiritual world concerning the states 
of men after death, of which ignorance makes a 
jest and derision. But he answered me that this 
did not depend on him ; that he was too old to sport 
with spiritual things, and too much concerned for 
his eternal happiness to yield to such foolish no- 
tions ; assuring me on his hopes of salvation that 
imagination produced in him none of his revela- 
tions, which were true and from what he had heard 
and seen." 

In another letter Count Hopken recurs to the 
same point : speaking of a certain clergyman, he 
says — 

"He was by no means a Swedenborgian, for 
he did not understand his ' memorable relations' ; 
and I could wish the happy deceased had left them 
out, as they may prevent infidelity from approach- 
ing his doctrines. I represented to him these in- 
conveniences ; but he said that he was commanded 
to declare what he had seen in the other world ; 
and he related it as a proof that he did not reveal 
his own thoughts, but that they came from above. 
As for the rest, I find in his system a simplicity 
and gradation and such a spirit as the work of God 
in nature everywhere proves and exhibits ; for 

221 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

whatever man creates is complicated, labored, and 
subject to vicissitude/' 

In a letter to another friend, still to the same 
point, the Count says — 

" There are two circumstances in the doctrine 
and writings of Swedenborg. The first is his 
* memorable relations.-' Of these I cannot judge, 
not having had any spiritual intercourse myself, by 
which to judge of his assertions either approvingly 
or disapprovingly ; but they cannot appear more 
extraordinary than the Apocalypse of John, and 
other similar relations in the Bible. The second 
is his tenets of doctrine. Of these I can judge : 
they are excellent, irrefutable, and the best that 
ever were taught, promoting the happiest social 
life. I know that Swedenborg wrote his memora- 
bilia bond fide. ... 

" I have sometimes told the King that if ever 
a new colony were to be formed, no religion could 
be better, as the prevailing and established one, 
than that developed by Swedenborg from the 
Sacred Scriptures, and this for the two following 
reasons : First, this religion, in preference to and 
in a higher degree than any other, must produce 
the most honest and industrious subjects ; for it 

222 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

properly places the worship of God in uses. Sec- 
ond, it causes least fear of death, as this religion 
regards death merely as a transition from one state 
to another, from a worse to a better situation ; nay, 
upon his principles I look upon death as being of 
hardly any greater moment than drinking a glass 
of water. I have been convinced of the truth of 
Swedenborg's doctrine from these arguments in 
particular, namely, that One is the author of every- 
thing, and that a separate person is not the Crea- 
tor, and another the Author of religion ; that there 
are degrees in everything and these subsisting to 
eternity ; the history of creation is unaccount- 
able unless explained in the spiritual sense. We 
may say of the religion which Swedenborg has 
developed in his writings from the Word of God, 
with Gamaliel : * If it be of God, it cannot be 
overthrown ; but if it be of man, it will come to 
nought.' " 

That Swedenborg on his part held Hopken in 
high esteem is shown by the memorials to the 
Diet in his favor, to which we have already al- 
luded. We will take our leave of the Count in 
copying his statement of the " Truthful account 
made by the late Queen Dowager": — 

223 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

" Swedenborg was one day at a court reception. 
Her Majesty [the Queen Dowager Louisa Ulrica] 
asked him about different things in the other life, 
and lastly whether he had seen or talked with 
her brother, the Prince Royal of Prussia. He an- 
swered, ' No/ Her Majesty then requested him to 
ask after him, and to give him her greeting, which 
Swedenborg promised to do. I doubt whether 
the Queen meant anything serious by it. At 
the next reception Swedenborg again appeared at 
court ; and while the Queen was in the so-called 
white room, surrounded by her ladies of honor, 
he came boldly in and approached her Majesty, 
who no longer remembered the commission she 
had given him a week before. Swedenborg not 
only greeted her from her brother, but also gave 
her his apologies for not having answered her last 
letter ; he also wished to do so now through Swe- 
denborg, which he accordingly did. The Queen 
was greatly overcome, and said, ' No one except 
God knows this secret.' 

"The reason why the Queen never adverted to 
this before, was that she did not wish any one 
in Sweden to believe that during a war with Prus- 
sia she had carried on a correspondence in the 

224 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

enemy's country. The same caution her Majesty 
exercised during her last visit to Berlin. When 
she was asked about this transaction, which had 
been printed in a German paper, she did not 
answer." 

The same story comes to us through many 
different channels, to substantially the same ef- 
fect. The account given by Mr. Springer, as from 
Swedenborg himself, contains a variation quite 
likely to be true : — 

" The Queen of Sweden had written letters to 
her brother, a Prince of Prussia ; and having no 
answers, she doubted whether he had received 
them or not. The Baron [Swedenborg] at that 
time had converse with the Queen, and her 
brother had died in Prussia. She was very desir- 
ous to know if he had received the letters. She 
consulted the Baron, who said he would inform 
her in a few days. He did so, and told her he had 
received them and was going to answer them, 
and that in an escritoire of the Prince was a letter 
unfinished intended for her; but he was taken ill 
and died. She sent to the King of Prussia, and it 
was as the Baron had declared : the King sent the 
unfinished letter." 

225 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

The Prince of Prussia referred to was Augustus 
William, brother to Frederic II and to the Queen 
Louisa Ulrica, wife of Adolphus Frederic, King 
of Sweden from 175 1 to 1771. It is amusingly 
told, on the authority of the wife of Swedenborg's 
gardener, that " for days following the occurrence 
carriages stopped before the door of her master, 
from which the first gentlemen of the kingdom 
alighted, who desired to know the secret of which 
the Queen was so much frightened ; but her mas- 
ter, faithful to his promise, refused to tell it." 

Christopher Springer, whose statement we 
have just quoted, was a Swede, and long a friend 
of Swedenborg, both in their own country and in 
London, where for political reasons he resided 
many years. He had been prominent in public 
affairs at home, and became the confidential agent 
of the English Government in all that concerned 
Swedish matters, being employed in bringing 
about peace between Sweden and Frederick the 
Great in 1762. In London he was regarded as 
the father of the Swedes, and was applied to for 
all aid and information. In answer to inquiries 
about Swedenborg, after his decease, Mr. Springer 
said — 

226 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

" His father, Jesper Swedberg, was Bishop of 
Skara, a man of great learning ; but this Emanuel 
Swedenborg received richer endowments from 
God. His knowledge as well as his sincerity was 
great. He was constant in friendship, extremely 
frugal in his diet, and plain in his dress. His usual 
food was coffee with milk, and bread and butter; 
sometimes, however, he partook of a little fish, 
and only at rare intervals ate meat ; and he never 
drank above two glasses of wine. . . . 

" Two or three weeks before his decease . . . 
I asked him when he believed that the New Je- 
rusalem, or the New Church of God, would mani- 
fest itself, and whether this manifestation would 
take place in the four quarters of the world. His 
answer was that no mortal and not even the ce- 
lestial angels could predict the time ; that it was 
solely in the will of God. 'Read/ said he, 'the 
Book of Revelation xxi. 2, and Zechariah xiv. 9, 
and you will see there that the New Jerusalem 
will undoubtedly manifest itself to the whole 
earth/ . . . 

"Fifteen years ago [in 1766] Swedenborg set 
out for Sweden, and asked me to procure a good 
captain for him, which I did. I contracted with 

227 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

one whose name was Dixon. . . . When the cap- 
tain of the vessel called for Swedenborg, I took 
leave of him and wished him a happy journey. 
Having then asked the captain if he had a good 
supply of provisions on board, he answered me 
that he had as much as would be required. Swe- 
denborg then observed, ' My friend, we have not 
need of a great quantity ; for this day week we 
shall, by the aid of God, enter into the port of 
Stockholm at two o'clock.' On Captain Dixon's 
return, he related to me that this happened ex- 
actly as Swedenborg had foretold. 

"Two years afterward Swedenborg returned 
to London, where we continued our former friend- 
ship. He told me that he had sent his works to 
the bishops of Sweden, but without result, and 
that they had received him with the same indif- 
ference that he had experienced from the bish- 
ops in England. What a remarkable change I 
noticed among the bishops in London ! I had wit- 
nessed myself with what coldness he was received 
by them before his departure for Sweden, and I 
saw that on his return he was received by them 
with the greatest civility. I asked him how this 
change could have come, when he answered, ' God 

228 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

knows the time when His Church ought to 
commence/ . . . 

" As to what relates to myself, I cannot give 
you a reason for the great friendship Swedenborg 
entertained for me, who am not a learned man. 
It is true, we were good friends in Sweden ; but 
that this friendship between us should have be- 
come as constant as it has been, I never expected. 

" All that he had told me of my deceased friends 
and enemies, and all of the secrets I had with them, 
is almost past belief. He even explained to me 
in what manner peace was concluded between 
Sweden and the King of Prussia ; and he praised 
my conduct on that occasion He even specified 
the three high personages whose services I made 
use of at that time ; which was nevertheless a 
profound secret between us. On asking him how 
it was possible for him to obtain such information, 
and who had discovered it to him, he replied, 
' Who informed me about your affair with Count 
Claes Ekeblad? You cannot deny that what I 
have told you is true. Continue/ he added, i to 
merit his reproaches [for refusing a great bribe] ; 
depart not from the good way either for honors 
or money ; but, on the contrary, continue as 

229 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

constant therein as you have hitherto, and you 
will prosper/ " 

John Christian Cuno, soldier, poet, and mer- 
chant, of Amsterdam, left a manuscript autobio- 
graphy, in which he has much to say of Sweden- 
borg : — 

" I must remain faithful to a promise made last 
year, and begin by giving an account of the most 
singular saint who has ever lived, Mr. Emanuel 
Swedenborg. As nothing concerns me more in 
this world than the worship of God, and as I found 
interspersed in the last work of that man such 
strange and singular things, I was naturally im- 
pelled by an irresistible curiosity to make the 
acquaintance of the author. . . . 

" The Christian worship of God is subject to 
this sad calamity in this world, that attacks are 
made upon it either by arrogant fools who call 
themselves strong-minded, or by visionaries ; the 
latter rendering it ridiculous sometimes without 
wishing to do so, but the former endeavoring to 
do so with all their power. The learned Mr. Swe- 
denborg cannot be classed among the freethinkers 
and enemies of the Christian religion ; for he writes 
with the greatest reverence for God and His Word. 

230 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

He has impressed upon me the most profound 
reverence for the adorable Saviour of the world, 
and his entire system of doctrine is based upon 
His Divinity. . . . 

" I scarcely believe that he has any enemies ; 
at all events he could not have made them by the 
innocent, even sainted, tenor of his life ; and should 
he have them, it would be impossible for them, 
as well as for the scoffers who examine closely all 
modes of life different from their own, to discover 
anything in him which they could justly find fault 
with, or even calumniate. . . . 

" My first acquaintance with him dates from 
November 4, 1768, when I happened to meet him 
in the French book-shop of Mr. Frangois Chan- 
guion. The old gentleman speaks both French and 
High-German, yet not very readily. Besides, he 
is afflicted with the natural infirmity of stammer- 
ing; yet at one time more than at another. Our 
first meeting was pleasing and sympathetic. He 
permitted me to call upon him at his own house, 
which I did on the following Sunday ; and I con- 
tinued to do so almost every Sunday, after attend- 
ing church in the morning. He lodged near our 
old church in Kalbergasse [Amsterdam], where he 

231 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

had engaged two comfortable rooms. One of my 
first questions was whether he had no male attend- 
ant to wait upon him in his old age, and to accom- 
pany him on his journeys. He answered that he 
needed no one to look after him, because his 
angel was ever with him, and conversed and held 
communication with him. If another man had 
uttered these words, he would have made me 
laugh ; but I never thought of laughing when this 
venerable man, eighty-one years old, told me this 
— he looked far too innocent ; and when he gazed 
on me with his smiling blue eyes, which he always 
did in conversing with me, it was as if truth itself 
was speaking from them. I often noticed with 
surprise how scoffers, who had made their way into 
large companies where I had taken him, and whose 
purpose it had been to make fun of the old gentle- 
man, forgot all their laughter and their intended 
scoffing ; and how they stood agape and listened 
to the most singular things which he, like an open- 
hearted child, told about the spiritual world, with- 
out reserve and with full confidence. It almost 
seemed as if his eyes possessed the faculty of 
imposing silence on every one. 

" He lived with simple burgher folks, who kept 
232 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

a shop in which they sold chintz, muslin, hand- 
kerchiefs, and the like, and who had quite a 
number of little children. I inquired of the land- 
lady whether the old gentleman did not require 
very much attention. She answered, ' He scarcely 
requires any ; the servant has nothing to do for 
him except in the morning to lay the fire for him 
in the fireplace. Every evening he goes to bed 
at seven, and gets up in the morning at eight. 
We do not trouble ourselves any more about him. 
During the day he keeps up the fire himself, 
and on going to bed takes great care lest the fire 
should do any damage. He dresses and undresses 
himself alone, and waits upon himself in every- 
thing ; so that we scarcely know whether there 
is any one in the house or not. I should like him 
to be with us during the rest of his life. My 
children will miss him most ; for he never goes 
out without bringing them home sweets : the little 
rogues also dote on the old gentleman so much 
that they prefer him to their own parents.' . . . 
" It soon became known in town that I asso- 
ciated with this remarkable man, and everybody 
troubled me to give them an opportunity of mak- 
ing his acquaintance. I advised the people to do 

*33 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

as I had done, and to call upon him, because he 
willingly conversed with every honest man. Mr. 
Swedenborg moves in the world with great tact, 
and knows how to address the high as well as the 
low. . . . 

"Once, at the urgent request of my friend, 
Mr. Nicolam Konauw, I agreed to bring him to 
dinner. The old gentleman consented and was 
prepared at once to go. Mr. Konauw sent his 
carriage for us. On presenting ourselves to Ma- 
dame, we found among other guests the two 
Misses Hoog, who had been highly educated and 
had been introduced, beyond the common sphere 
of woman, into the higher, especially the philo- 
sophical sciences. Mr. Swedenborg's deportment 
was exquisitely refined and gallant. When dinner 
was announced, I offered my hand to the hostess, 
and quickly our young man of eighty-one years 
had put on his gloves and presented his hand to 
Mademoiselle Hoog, in doing which he looked 
uncommonly well. Whenever he was invited out, 
he dressed properly and becomingly in black 
velvet ; but ordinarily he wore a brown coat and 
black trousers. . . . 

"I shall never forget, as long as I live, the 
234 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

leave which he took of me in my own house. It 
seemed to me as if this truly venerable old man 
was much more eloquent this last time, and spoke 
differently from what I ever heard him speak 
before. He admonished me to continue in good- 
ness and to acknowledge the Lord for my God. 
* If it please God, I shall once more come to you 
in Amsterdam; for I love you. 1 'O my worthy 
Mr. Swedenborg/ I interrupted him, ■ this will 
probably not take place in this world ; for I, at 
least, do not attribute to myself a long life.' 
'This you cannot know/ he continued, 'we are 
obliged to remain as long in the world as the 
Divine providence and wisdom sees fit. If any one 
is conjoined with the Lord, he has a foretaste of 
the eternal life in this world ; and if he has this, 
he no longer cares so much about this transitory 
life. Believe me, if I knew that the Lord would 
call me to Himself to-morrow, I would summon 
the musicians to-day, in order to be once more 
really gay in this world/ In order to feel what I 
felt then, you would have had to hear the old man 
say this, in his second childhood. This time also 
he looked so innocent and so joyful out of his 
eyes as I had never seen him look before. I did 

235 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

not interrupt him, and was as it were dumb with 
astonishment He then saw a Bible lying on my 
desk, and while I was thus gazing quietly before 
me and he could easily see the state of my mind, 
he took the book and opened it at this passage — 
i John v. 20, 21. * Read these words/ he said, 
and then closed the book again, 'but that you 
may not forget them, I will rather put them down 
for you ; ' and in saying these words he dipped the 
pen in order to write the reference on the leaf 
which is preserved here; his hand however 
trembled, as may be seen from the figure 1 . This 
I could not bear, and so I asked him in a friendly 
manner to mention the passage to me. I then 
put down the reference myself. As soon as I had 
done so, he arose. 'The time now approaches/ 
he said, 'when I must take leave of my other 
friends.' He then embraced and kissed me most 
heartily. 

" As soon as he had left, I read the passage 
which he had recommended to me. It read thus: 
' But we know that the Son of God has come, 
and hath given us an understanding that we may 
know Him that is true, and we are in Him that 
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is 

236 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

the true God, and eternal life. Little children, 
keep yourselves from idols. Amen.' " 

In 1770 Cuno again noted in his memoirs — 

" Last year I gave my readers many sheets to 
read respecting my dear old Swedenborg ; but I 
am by no means done yet with this singular man, 
and as long as my eyes remain open, I shall not 
so easily turn them away from him. I still hear 
news concerning him from Sweden, nay, a short 
time ago he desired to be remembered to me, and 
sent me word that he hoped to embrace me this 
summer. The clergy have made an assault upon 
him with all their power, but they could not do 
him any harm, because those high in authority, 
even, it is said, the King and the Queen, love 
him." 

In his " Theory of Pneumatology " J. H. Jung- 
Stilling — whose name is cited in Kurtz's " Church 
History " among the five most brilliant and best 
known names of the faithful sons of the Church 
who withstood the rationalistic spirit of the age 
— says — 

" As so very much has been written both for 
and against this extraordinary man, I consider it 
my duty to make known the pure truth respecting 

237 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

him, since I have had an opportunity of knowing 
it pure and uncontaminated." 

After declaring that Swedenborg was no im- 
postor, but a pious Christian man, and referring 
to the "three proofs generally known that he 
had actually intercourse with spirits/ ' Stilling 
continues — 

" But I must add here a fourth experimental 
proof which has not been made public before, and 
which is fully as important as any of the foregoing. 
I can vouch for the truth of it with the greatest 
certainty. 

"About the year 1770 there was a merchant 
in Elberfeld with whom during seven years of my 
residence there I lived in close intimacy. He was 
a strict mystic in the purest sense. He spoke little, 
but what he said was like golden fruit on a salver 
of silver. He would not have dared for all the 
world knowingly to tell a falsehood. This friend 
of mine, who has long ago left this world for a 
better, related to me the following story : — 

" His business required him to take a journey 
to Amsterdam, where Swedenborg at that time 
resided ; and having heard and read much of this 
singular man, he formed the intention of visiting 

238 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

him and becoming better acquainted with him. 
He therefore called upon him, and found a very 
venerable-looking, friendly old man, who received 
him politely and requested him to be seated, 
whereupon the following conversation began : — 

" Merchant, ' Having been called hither by 
business, I could not deny myself the honor, Sir, 
of paying my respects to you : your writings have 
caused me to regard you as a very remarkable 
man.' 

" Swedenborg. ' May I ask you where you are 
from ? ' 

" M. 'I am from Elberfeld, in the Duchy of 
Berg. Your writings contain so much that is 
beautiful and edifying, that they have made a 
deep impression on me ; but the source from which 
you derive them is so extraordinary, so strange and 
uncommon, that you will perhaps not take it amiss 
of a sincere friend of truth if he desire incontest- 
able proofs that you really have intercourse with 
the spiritual world/ 

" 5. ' It would be very unreasonable if I took 
it amiss ; but I think I have given sufficient proofs, 
which cannot be contradicted.' 

" M. ' Are these the well-known ones, respect- 
239 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

ing the Queen, the fire in Stockholm, and the 
receipt ? ' 

" 5. ' Yes, those are they, and they are true.' 

" M. ' And yet many objections are brought 
against them. Might I venture to propose that 
you give me a similar proof ? ' 

" 5. < Why not ? Most willingly/ 

" M. 'I had formerly a friend who studied Di- 
vinity at Duisburg, where he fell into consump- 
tion, of which he died. I visited this friend a short 
time before his decease ; we conversed together 
on an important topic : could you learn from him 
what was the subject of our discourse ? ' 

" 5. ' We will see. What was the name of your 
friend ? ' 

" The merchant told his name. 

" S. ' How long do you remain here ? ' 

" M. * About eight or ten days.' 

" 5. * Call upon me again in a few days. I will 
see if I can find your friend/ 

" The merchant took his leave and despatched 
his business. Some days afterward he went again 
to Swedenborg, f ull of expectation. The old gentle- 
man met him with a smile and said — ' I have 
spoken with your friend ; the subject of your dis- 

240 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

course was the restitution of all things! He then 
related to the merchant with the greatest preci- 
sion what he and what his deceased friend had 
maintained. My friend turned pale, for this proof 
was powerful and invincible. He inquired further 
— ' How fares it with my friend ? Is he in a state 
of blessedness? ' Swedenborg answered, 'No, he is 
not in heaven yet; he is still in hades, and torments 
himself continually with the idea of the restitution 
of all things/ This answer caused my friend the 
greatest astonishment. He exclaimed — ' My God! 
what, in the other world ? ' Swedenborg replied — 
1 Certainly, a man takes with him his favorite incli- 
nation and opinions, and it is very difficult to be di- 
vested of them : we ought therefore to lay them 
aside here/ My friend took his leave of this re- 
markable man perfectly convinced, and returned 
back to Elberfeld. . . . That Swedenborg for 
many years had frequent intercourse with the in- 
habitants of the spiritual world, is not subject to 
any doubt, but is a settled fact/' 

Another statement given by Jung-Stilling, as 
he had it from " a certain beloved friend for many 
years, who is far advanced in Christianity," is as 
follows : — 

241 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

" In the year 1762, on the very day when Peter 
III of Russia died, Swedenborg was present with 
me [a God-fearing friend of Stilling's friend] at a 
party in Amsterdam. In the middle of the con- 
versation his physiognomy changed, and it was 
evident that his soul was no longer present in him 
and that something was taking place with him. 
As soon as he recovered, he was asked what had 
happened. At first he would not speak out ; but 
after being repeatedly urged, he said, ' Now, at 
this very hour, the Emperor Peter III has died 
in prison ' — explaining the nature of his death 
[strangled by order of the Empress]. 'Gentlemen, 
will you please make a note of this day, in order 
that you may compare it with the announcement 
of his death which will appear in the newspaper? ' 
The papers soon after announced the death of 
the Emperor, which had taken place on the very 
same day. . . . 

" Such is the account of my friend ; if any one 
doubts this statement, it is a proof that he has 
no sense of what is called historical faith and its 
grounds, and that he believes only what he him- 
self hears and sees." 

And yet Jung-Stilling himself preferred attri- 
242 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

buting Swedenborg's communication with the 
other world to somnambulism and a state of ec- 
stasy in which spirits spoke through him — a no- 
tion not at all consistent with the fact that Swe- 
denborg never laid aside his own reason and the 
control of his speech and acts. These illustrations 
of this open communication we quote, not as proofs 
to convince the incredulous — no second-hand 
testimony can do that — but as a part of Swe- 
denborg's daily life which cannot fairly be omit- 
ted, and which indeed is necessary to complete 
our understanding of his being present in both 
worlds at once. As such they serve as con- 
firmation to those who recognize the spiritual 
truths which this communication was given to 
reveal. 

Of the three proofs to which Jung-Stilling re- 
ferred, we have already seen the story of Queen 
Ulrica and her brother. The second is of the fire 
in Stockholm known to Swedenborg at Gotten- 
burg; and the third is of a mislaid receipt. Of 
these occurrences Swedenborg himself says, in a 
letter to Venator, minister of the Landgrave of 
Hesse-Darmstadt — 

"These must by no means be regarded as 
243 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

miracles ; for they are simply testimonies that I 
have been introduced by the Lord into the spir- 
itual world and have intercourse and converse 
there with angels and spirits, in order that the 
Church, which has hitherto remained in ignorance 
concerning that world, may know that heaven and 
hell really exist, and that man lives after death a 
man as before ; and that thus no more doubts 
may flow into his mind in respect to his immor- 
tality." 

The occurrence of the Stockholm fire is vari- 
ously related. Immanuel Kant's account, gathered 
by him with great care for a correspondent, seems 
most complete and trustworthy, with R. L. Tafel's 
correction of the date. Says Kant — 

" The following occurrence appears to me to 
have the greatest weight of proof, and to place 
the assertion respecting Swedenborg' s extraordi- 
nary gift beyond all possibility of doubt : — 

"In the year 1759, toward the end of July, on 
Saturday at four o'clock p. m., Swedenborg ar- 
rived at Gottenburg from England, when Mr. 
William Castel invited him to his house, together 
with a party of fifteen persons. About six o'clock 
Swedenborg went out, and returned to the com- 

244 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

pany quite pale and alarmed. He said that a dan- 
gerous fire had just broken out in Stockholm, 
in the Sodermalm (Gottenburg is about three 
hundred miles from Stockholm), and it was 
spreading very fast. He was restless and went 
out often. He said that the house of one of his 
friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, 
and his own was in danger. At eight o'clock, 
after he had been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, 
' Thank God ! the fire is extinguished, the third 
door from my house/ The news occasioned great 
commotion throughout the whole city, but par- 
ticularly amongst the company in which he was. 
It was announced to the governor the same even- 
ing. On Sunday morning Swedenborg was sum- 
moned to the governor, who questioned him 
concerning the disaster. Swedenborg described 
the fire precisely — how it had begun, and how it 
had continued, and in what manner it had ceased. 
On the same day the news spread through the 
city and, as the governor had thought it worthy 
of attention, the consternation was considerably 
increased, because many were in trouble, on ac- 
count of their friends and property which might 
have been involved in the disaster. On Monday 

*45 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

evening a messenger arrived at Gottenburg, who 
was despatched by the Board of Trade during the 
time of the fire. In the letters brought by him 
the fire was described precisely in the manner 
stated by Swedenborg. On Tuesday morning the 
royal courier arrived at the governor's with the 
melancholy intelligence of the fire, of the loss 
which it had occasioned, and of the houses it had 
damaged and ruined, not in the least differing 
from that which Swedenborg had given at the 
very time when it happened ; for the fire was ex- 
tinguished at eight o'clock.' ' 

From many different accounts of the lost re- 
ceipt, agreeing in substance, we select again that 
of Kant, confirmed as it is in all essential particu- 
lars by the secretary of the legation and executor 
of the estate : — 

" Madame Marteville, the widow of the Dutch 
Ambassador in Stockholm, some time after the 
death of her husband, was called upon by Croon, 
a goldsmith, to pay for a silver service which her 
husband had purchased from him. The widow 
was convinced that her late husband had been 
much too precise and orderly not to have paid 
this debt, yet she was unable to find the receipt. 

246 



MANNER OF LIFE IN LATER PERIOD 

In her sorrow, and because the amount was con- 
siderable, she requested Mr. Swedenborg to call 
at her house. After apologizing to him for trou- 
bling him, she said that if, as all people say, he 
possessed the extraordinary gift of conversing 
with the souls of the departed, he would perhaps 
have the kindness to ask her husband how it was 
about the silver service. Swedenborg did not at 
all object to comply with her request. Three days 
afterward the said lady had company at her house 
for coffee. Swedenborg called, and in his cool 
way informed her that he had conversed with 
her husband. The debt had been paid seven 
months before his decease, and the receipt was 
in a bureau in the room up-stairs. The lady re- 
plied that the bureau had been quite cleared out, 
and that the receipt was not found among all the 
papers. Swedenborg said that her husband had 
described to him how, after pulling out the left- 
hand drawer, a board would appear which required 
to be drawn out, when a secret compartment 
would be disclosed, containing his private Dutch 
correspondence, as well as the receipt. Upon 
hearing this description the whole company rose 
and accompanied the lady into the room up-stairs. 

247 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

The bureau was opened ; they did as they were 
directed ; the compartment was found, of which 
no one had known before ; and to the great as- 
tonishment of all, the papers were discovered 
there in accordance with his description." 



X 

LATER PERIOD OF LIFE '. CONCLUSION 

Another of the five faithful sons of the Church 
named by Kurtz was Oetinger, called by him 
"the magus of the south," "the first representa- 
tive of a theology of the future." It is interesting 
to note thatSwedenborg's relations of things heard 
and seen in the other world, which Hopken would 
have wished omitted, were to Oetinger the most 
attractive part of his theological works, for the 
reason perhaps that his spiritual interpretations of 
the prophecies of Scripture were at variance with 
Oetinger's conception of their literal fulfilment. 
With his own works Oetinger published transla- 
tions of intermediate chapters in Swedenborg's 
Arcana, under the following introduction : — 

" I herewith present to the reader something 
rare, which God has given us to know in the pres- 
ent times. It is profitable to compare unusual 
things with those to which we are accustomed ; 
but in doing so it is necessary sometimes to keep 
back our judgment until we are able to take in the 

249 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

whole matter. The infidelity which is rife now in 
the world has induced God to make use of a cele- 
brated philosopher in order to communicate to us 
heavenly information. Mathematics have checked 
the imagination of this philosopher ; wherefore it 
will not do to say that he reports mere imagina- 
tions. Experimental facts are not imaginations. 
These experiences are due to the influx of heavenly 
intelligence by the command of the Lord. Should 
any one say, * We have Moses and the Prophets/ 
he may read what follows or not, just as he pleases. 
Still, a person anxious to improve himself ought 
not to forego any opportunity by which he may 
become acquainted with new light offered to him 
by truth. Swedenborg, a distinguished Assessor 
of the College of Mines in Sweden, wrote a large 
work in folio, which is most costly. This I call 
Earthly Philosophy in contradistinction to the fol- 
lowing, which is of a heavenly origin, and which 
he has published in thirteen works that are still 
more valuable. Should you find therein proposi- 
tions which appear objectionable, remember the 
twelve Ephesians in the Acts, xix. 21, who 'had 
not so much as heard whether there be any Holy 
Ghost/ and nevertheless were thought worthy at 

250 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

once to receive the Holy Spirit, notwithstanding 
they were ignorant of one of the chief grounds of 
faith, and opposed to the Scripture. Does not 
Swedenborg place the Scripture higher than any 
one else ? and does he not wish to have all expe- 
riences judged thereby ? Is not all he says well 
connected ? And does he not appeal to many wit- 
nesses ? " 

Referring to the first volume of the same philo- 
sophical work, in a letter of defence addressed to 
the Duke of Wurtemberg, Oetinger says, " Thirty 
years previously I had studied Swedenborg' s Prin- 
cipia Rerum Naturalium in folio, which I pre- 
ferred much to Wolff's philosophy, on account of 
its leading to the Sacred Scripture. It is wonderful 
how a philosopher, who was accustomed to think 
according to rules of mechanics, should have be- 
come a prophet/ ' 

We have now shown the esteem for Sweden- 
borg of two of the men named by Kurtz as the 
leading religious spirits of this period in Germany 
— Jung-Stilling and Oetinger. That of a third, 
Lavater, is sufficiently shown in two letters to 
Swedenborg, the second and shorter of which we 
here copy : — 

251 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

" Most noble, venerable, and beloved in Christ 
our Lord: — I have taken the liberty of writing 
to you a second time, as it is likely you may not 
have received my other letter, on account of your 
travels ; but I have at last learned by what means 
this will probably reach you. 

" I revere the wonderful gifts you have re- 
ceived from God. I revere the wisdom which shines 
forth from your writings, and therefore cannot 
but seek the friendship of so great and excellent 
a man now living. If what is reported be true, 
God will show you how much I seek to converse 
with you in the simplicity of my mind. I am a 
young man, not yet thirty years old, a minister of 
the Gospel ; I am and shall remain employed in 
the cause of Christ as long as I live. I have written 
something on the happiness of the future life. O, 
if I could exchange letters with you on this sub- 
ject, or rather converse ! 

" I add some writing : you shall know my soul. 

" One thing I beg of you, Divinely inspired 
man ! I beseech you by the Lord not to refuse me ! 

" In the month of March, 1 768, died Felix Hess, 
my best friend, a youth of Zurich, twenty-four 
years of age, an upright man, of a noble mind, 

252 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

striving after a Christian spirit, but not yet clothed 
with Christ. Tell me, I pray, what he is doing. 
Paint to me his figure, state, etc., in such words 
that I may know that God's truth is in you. . . . 

" I am your brother in Christ. Answer very 
soon a sincere brother ; and answer the letter I 
have sent in such a manner that / may see what 
I am believing on the testimony of others. 

" Christ be with us, to whom we belong, living 
or dead. 

"John Casper Lavater, 
"Minister at the Orphan Asylum. 

"Zurich in Switzerland 
"Sept. 24, 1769." 

Matthius Claudius, a third of Kurtz's five faith- 
ful sons of the Church, a poet and religious writer, 
had no personal acquaintance with Swedenborg, 
but reflected the esteem of others. 

" Now/' he says, " after Swedenborg had made 
himself acquainted with all the erudition of his 
time, and after the greatest honors had been be- 
stowed upon him by individuals and whole socie- 
ties, he began to see spirits. ... He was always 
a virtuous man, and one who was interiorly af- 
fected with the beauty and majesty of the visible 

253 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

world. . . . We cannot help thinking that there 
are spirits, and Swedenborg often affirmed in his 
lifetime with great earnestness, and even on his 
death-bed . . . that he was able to see spirits, and 
had seen them. Now as the new world really ex- 
isted long before Columbus found it out, though 
we in Europe were ignorant of its existence, so 
perhaps there may be a means to see spirits. . . . 
In the opinion of many wise people there lies a 
great deal of truth hidden perhaps close by us." 

And Father Oberlin, of Ban-de-la-Roche, 
fourth of Kurtz's five most brilliant and best- 
known names of the faithful sons of the Church, 
held in reverence everywhere for his love and 
piety, was asked by an English visitor, the Rev. 
J. H. Smithson, whether he had read any of the 
works of Swedenborg. 

"He immediately reached a book, and clap- 
ping his hand upon it, expressive of great satis- 
faction, told me that he had had this treasure a 
great many years in his library, and that he knew 
from his own experience that everything related 
in it was true. This treasure was Swedenborg's 
work on Heaven and Hell." In answer to inquiry 
how he came to this conviction, " he replied that 

2 54 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

when he first came to reside as pastor among 
the inhabitants of Steinthal, they had many su- 
perstitious notions respecting the proximity of 
the spiritual world, and of the appearance of va- 
rious objects and phenomena in that world which 
from time to time were seen by some of the 
people belonging to his flock. For instance, it 
was not unusual for a person who had died to 
appear to some individual in the valley. This 
gift of second sight, or the opening of the spirit- 
ual sight, to see objects in a spiritual state of ex- 
istence, was however confined to a few persons, 
and continued but a short period and at different 
intervals of time. The report of every new oc- 
currence of this kind was brought to Oberlin, 
who at length became so much annoyed that he 
was resolved to put down this species of super- 
stition, as he called it, from the pulpit, and ex- 
erted himself for a considerable time to this end, 
but with little or no desirable effect. Cases be- 
came more numerous, and the circumstances so 
striking as even to stagger the scepticism of 
Oberlin himself. About this time, being on a 
visit to Strasburg, he met with the work on 
Heaven and Hell, which a friend [probably Jung- 

255 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Stilling] recommended him to peruse. This work, 
as he informed me, gave him a full and satisfac- 
tory explanation of the extraordinary cases oc- 
curring in his valley, and which he himself was 
at length, from evidences which could not be 
doubted, constrained to admit. The satisfactory 
solution of these extraordinary cases afforded 
great pleasure to his mind, and he read the 
'treasure/ as he called it, very attentively and 
with increasing delight. He no longer doubted 
the nearness of the spiritual world ; yea, he be- 
lieved that man by virtue of his better part — 
his immortal mind — is already an inhabitant of 
the spiritual world, in which after the death of 
the material body he is to continue his existence 
forever. He plainly saw, from the correspondent 
relation existing between the two worlds, that 
when it pleased the Lord, man might easily be 
placed by opening his spiritual senses in open 
communication with the world of spirits. This, 
he observed, was frequently the case with the 
seers mentioned in the Old Testament; and why 
might it not be so now, if the Divine providence 
saw fit, in order to instruct mankind more fully 
in respect to their relation to a spiritual state of 

256 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

existence, and to replenish their minds with more 
accurate and copious views respecting heaven, 
the final home of the good, and hell, the final 
abode of the wicked? . . . From seeing, as ex- 
plained by Swedenborg, that the Lord's kingdom 
is a kingdom of uses, Oberlin resolved all the 
exertions and operations of his life into one ele- 
ment — use. He taught his people that to be 
useful, and to shun all evil as sin against the 
Lord in being useful, is the truly heavenly life/* 

Carl Robsahm, who was intimate with Swe- 
denborg in his later years, left memoirs of him, 
from which we take the following details : — 

" Swedenborg's property [in Stockholm] was 
about a stone's cast in length and in breadth. 
The rooms of his dwelling-house were small and 
plain ; but were comfortable for him, though 
scarcely for any one else. Although he was a 
learned man, no books were ever seen in his 
room except his Hebrew and Greek Bible, and 
his manuscript indexes to his own works, by 
which, in making quotations, he was saved the 
trouble of examining all that he had previously 
written or printed. 

" Swedenborg worked without much regard to 
257 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

the distinction of day and night, having no fixed 
time for labor or rest. 'When I am sleepy/ he 
said, 'I go to bed/ All the attendance he re- 
quired from his servant, his gardener's wife, con- 
sisted in her making his bed and placing a large 
jug of water in his anteroom, his housekeeping 
being so arranged that he could make his own 
coffee in his study ; and this coffee he drank in 
great abundance, both day and night, and with a 
great deal of sugar. When not invited out, his 
dinner consisted of nothing but a roll soaked in 
boiled milk ; and this was his meal always when 
he dined at home. He never at that time used 
wine or strong drink, nor did he eat anything in 
the evening ; but in company he would eat freely, 
and indulge moderately in a social glass. 

" The fire in the stove of his study was never 
allowed to go out, from autumn through the 
whole of winter until spring ; for as he always 
needed coffee, and as he always made it himself, 
without milk or cream, and as he had never any 
definite time for sleeping, he always required to 
have a fire. 

" His sleeping-room was always without fire ; 
and when he lay down, according to the severity 

258 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

of the winter, he covered himself with three or 
four woollen blankets. But I remember one win- 
ter which was so cold that he was obliged to 
move his bed into his study. 

"As soon as he awoke, he went into his study, 
where he always found glowing embers, put wood 
on the burning coals and a few pieces of birch 
bark — which for convenience he used to pur- 
chase in bundles so as to be able to make a fire 
quickly — and then he sat down to write. 

" In his drawing-room was the marble table 
which he afterward presented to the Royal Col- 
lege of Mines ; this room was neat and genteel, 
but plain. 

" His dress in winter consisted of a fur coat of 
reindeer skin, and in summer of a dressing-gown ; 
both well worn, as became a philosopher's ward- 
robe. His wearing apparel was simple, but neat. 
Yet it happened sometimes that when he prepared 
to go out, and his people did not call attention to 
it, something would be forgotten or neglected in 
his dress; so that, for instance, he would put 
one buckle of gems and another of silver in his 
shoes — an instance of which absence of mind I 
myself saw at my father's house, where he was 

259. 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

invited to dine, and the occurrence greatly amused 
several young girls, who took occasion to laugh 
at the old gentleman. 

" It was difficult for him to talk quickly, for he 
then stammered, especially when he was obliged 
to talk in a foreign tongue. Of foreign languages, 
in addition to the learned languages, he under- 
stood well French, English, Dutch, German, and 
Italian ; for he had journeyed several times in 
these countries. He spoke slowly, and it was 
always a pleasure to be with him at table, for 
whenever Swedenborg spoke, all other talk was 
hushed ; and the slowness with which he spoke 
had the effect of restraining the frivolous remarks 
of the curious in the assembly. At first he used 
to talk freely about his visions and his explana- 
tions of Scripture ; but when this displeased the 
clergy, and they pronounced him a heretic or a 
downright madman, he resolved to be more sparing 
of his communications in company, or at all events 
to be more on his guard, so as not to offer an op- 
portunity to scoffers of inveighing against what 
they could not understand as well as himself. 

"I once addressed the pastor of our parish, an 
old and esteemed clergyman, and asked him what 

260 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

I ought to think of Swedenborg' s visions and of 
his explanations of the Bible. This honorable man 
answered me with the spirit of true tolerance : 
'Let God be the judge how these things are in 
reality! But I cannot pass the same • judgment 
upon him that many others do ; I have spoken 
with him myself, and I have found in company 
where he was with me that he is a pious and 
good man/ 

" The chaplain of the Imperial Russian Lega- 
tion, Oronoskow, who was in Stockholm during 
the time of the ambassador, Count Ostermann, 
was a monk of the Alexander-Newsky order, and 
led an orderly and pious life — quite differently 
from the other Russian priests who had been here 
before him. He became acquainted with me and 
I lent him Sw r edenborg's books, which he said 
he read with the greatest delight. He desired to 
see Swedenborg and to talk with this remark- 
able man. I complied with his desire, and invited 
Swedenborg and him to dinner, in company with 
the late President of the Royal College of Com- 
merce, Mr. von Carleson, and the Councillor of 
Chancery, Mr. Berch, together with several of my 
relatives. During dinner the chaplain asked Swe- 

261 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

denborg, among other things, whether he had seen 
the Empress Elizabeth. Swedenborg answered, 
* I have seen her often, and I know that she is in a 
very happy state.' This answer brought tears of 
joy into the chaplain's eyes, who said that she 
had been good and just. ■ Yes/ said Swedenborg, 
1 her kind feeling for her people was made known 
after her death in the other life ; for there it was 
shown that she never went into council without 
praying to God and asking for His counsel and 
assistance, in order that she might govern well her 
country and her people/ This gladdened the chap- 
lain so much that he expressed his joyful surprise 
by silence and tears. . . . 

" When he [Swedenborg] left Sweden for the 
last time, he came of his own accord to me at the 
bank on the day he was to leave, and gave me a 
protest against any condemnation of his writings 
during his absence ; which protest was based on 
the law of Sweden, and in which he stated that 
the House of the Clergy was not the only judge 
in matters of religion, inasmuch as theology be- 
longed also to the other Houses. On this occasion 
I asked him the same question as before, namely, 
whether I should ever see him again. His answer 

262 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

was tender and touching : — ' Whether I shall 
come again, that/ said he, ' I do not know ; but 
of this I can assure you, for the Lord has promised 
to me, that I shall not die until I have received 
from the press this work, the Vera Christiana 
Religio, which is now ready to be printed, and for 
the sake of which I now undertake this journey ; 
but if we do not meet again in the body, we shall 
meet in the presence of the Lord, provided we 
live in this world according to His will, and not 
according to our own/ He then took leave of me 
in as blithe and cheerful a frame of mind as if he 
had been a man in his best of years ; and the same 
day he departed from Sweden for the last time. 

" I asked Swedenborg once whether his expla- 
nations would be received in Christendom. 'About 
that/ said he, 'I can say nothing; but I suppose 
that in their proper time they will be received, for 
otherwise the Lord would not have disclosed what 
has heretofore lain concealed/ 

" He was never ill, except when temptations 
came over him, but he was frequently troubled 
with toothache. I came to him once on such an 
occasion, when he complained of a severe tooth- 
ache, which had continued for several days. I re- 

263 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

commended a common remedy for soothing the 
pain ; but he answered at once that his tooth- 
ache was not caused by a diseased nerve, but by 
the influx of hell from hypocrites who tempted 
him, and who by correspondence caused this pain 
which, he said, he knew would soon cease and leave 
him. 

"Respecting his temptations, I collected in- 
formation from his modest servants, the old gar- 
dener and his wife, who told me with sympathizing 
and compassionate words that Swedenborg often 
spoke aloud in his room, and was indignant when 
evil spirits were with him. This they could hear 
the more distinctly because their room was near 
his. When he was asked why he had been so 
restless during the night, he answered that per- 
mission had been given to evil spirits to revile 
him, and that he spoke to and was indignant with 
them. It often happened that he wept bitterly, 
and called out with a loud voice, and prayed to 
the Lord that He would not leave him in the 
temptation which had come upon him. The words 
which he cried out were these : ' O Lord, help 
me ! O Lord my God, do not forsake me ! ' When 
it was all over, and his people asked him about 

264 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

the cause of his lamentation, he said, ■ God be 
praised ! it is over now. You must not trouble 
yourselves about me ; for whatever happens to me 
is permitted by the Lord, and He does not suffer 
me to be tempted more than He sees that I can 
bear.' 

" Once it was very remarkable that after such 
a lamentation he lay down and did not rise from 
his bed for several days and nights. This caused 
his people much uneasiness ; they talked with one 
another and supposed that he had died from 
some great fright. They thought of having the 
door forced open, or of calling in his intimate 
friends. At last the man went to the window, 
and to his great joy saw that his master was still 
alive, for he turned himself in bed. The next day 
he rang the bell, and then the housekeeper went 
in and told him of her own and her husband's 
uneasiness at his condition ; whereupon he said 
with a cheerful countenance that he was doing well, 
and that he did not need anything. She was sat- 
isfied with this answer, for neither of his servants 
dared to interrogate him, since they had the same 
opinion of him as the old clergyman in my parish ; 
and they added that such a wise and learned man 

265 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

would never distress himself with work and temp- 
tations if he did not know whence they came." 

At another time Robsahm quotes the gardener's 
wife as saying — 

" ' I can see when he has spoken with heavenly 
spirits, for his face has then an expression of 
gentleness, cheerfulness, and contentment which 
is charming ; but after he has conversed with evil 
spirits, he looks sad/ . 

" During the session of the Diet he was inter- 
ested in hearing news from the House of Nobles, 
of which he was a member by virtue of his being 
the head of the Swedenborg family. He wrote 
several memorials ; but when he saw that party- 
spirit and self-interest struggled for mastery, he 
went rarely to the House of Nobles. In his con- 
versations with his friends he inveighed against 
the spirit of dissension among the members of 
the Diet ; and in acting with a party he was 
never a party man, but loved truth and honesty 
in all that he did. 

" I asked Swedenborg whether in our times it 
was worth while to pay attention to dreams ; upon 
which he answered that the Lord no longer at 
the present day makes revelations by dreams; 

266 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

but that nevertheless it may happen that one who 
understands correspondences may derive advan- 
tage from his dreams — just as a person that is 
awake may examine his own state by comparing 
his own will with God's commandments. . . . 

"Whatever Swedenborg wrote was printed from 
his own manuscript, and he never needed the 
help of an amanuensis. His handwriting was dif- 
ficult to read when he became older ; but he said 
to me, 'The Dutch printers read my handwrit- 
ing as easily as the English do/ There is one 
thing to be observed with regard to most of his 
spiritual writings, that the proof-sheets were cor- 
rected very badly, so that errata occur very often ; 
the cause of this, he said, was that the printer 
had undertaken the proof-reading, as well as the 
printing. 

" As Swedenborg in his younger days did not 
think of the work which was to occupy him in 
his more advanced years, it can easily be imagined 
that in his time he was not only a learned man, 
but also a polished gentleman ; for a man of such 
extensive learning, who by his books, his travels, 
and his knowledge of languages had acquired dis- 
tinction both at home and abroad, could not fail 

267 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

to possess the manners and everything else which 
in those so-called serious or sober times caused a 
man to be honored and made him agreeable in 
society. He was accordingly, even in his old age, 
cheerful, sprightly, and agreeable in company ; yet 
at the same time his countenance presented those 
uncommon features which are seen only in men 
of great genius." 

Robsahm's vivid picture of his friend may be 
supplemented by the slighter sketches of some of 
Swedenborg's visitors, with less intimate acquaint- 
ance. The royal librarian in Stockholm, Gjorwell, 
called on him in 1764 to request for the Royal 
Library a copy of the works he had lately pub- 
lished. His account of his visit to Swedenborg is 
simple, and pleasant to read : — 

"I met him in the garden adjoining his house 
in the Sodermalm [southern part of Stockholm], 
where he was engaged in tending his plants, at- 
tired in a simple garment. The house in which 
he lives is of wood; it is low and looks like a 
garden-house ; its windows also are in the direc- 
tion of the garden. Without knowing me or the 
nature of my errand, he said, smiling, ' Perhaps 
you would like to take a walk in the garden/ I an- 

268 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

swered that I wished to have the honor of calling 
upon him and asking him, on behalf of the Royal 
Library, for his latest works, so that we might 
have a complete set, especially as we had the 
former parts he had left with Wilde, the royal 
secretary. 'Most willingly/ he answered; 'be- 
sides, I had intended to send them there, as my 
purpose in publishing them has been to make 
them known and to place them in the hands of 
intelligent people.' I thanked him for his kind- 
ness, whereupon he showed them to me and took 
a walk with me in the garden. 

"Although he is an old man and gray hair 
protruded in every direction from under his wig, 
he walked briskly, was fond of talking, and spoke 
with a certain cheerfulness. His countenance was 
indeed thin and meagre, but cheerful and smil- 
ing. By and by he began of his own accord to 
speak of his views ; and as it had been in reality 
my second purpose to hear them with my own 
ears, I listened to him with eager attention, not 
challenging any of his statements, but simply 
asking him questions, as if for my own enlighten- 
ment.' ' 

The substance of his statements, and of what 
269 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

I drew from him by polite questions, consists 
mainly in what follows : — 

" His doctrinal system of theology, which he 
in common with other Christians bases upon our 
common Revelation, the Sacred Scripture, con- 
sists principally in this — that faith alone is a 
pernicious doctrine, and that good works are the 
proper means for becoming better in time, and 
for leading a blessed life in eternity. That in 
order to acquire the ability or power to do good 
works, prayer to the Only God is required, and 
that man also must labor with himself, because 
God does not use compulsion with us nor does 
He work any miracles for our conversion. As 
regards the rest, man must live in his appointed 
place, acquiring the same learning, and leading a 
life similar to that of other honest and modest 
persons who live temperately and piously. " 

The Rev. Nicholas Collin, in 1820 rector of the 
quaint old Swedish church in Philadelphia — the 
same that was built in 1700 under Bishop Swed- 
berg's charge — lived when a young man three 
years in Stockholm, at a time when " Swedenborg 
was a great object of public attention in that metro- 
polis, and his extraordinary character was a fre- 

270 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

quent topic of discussion. Not seldom he appeared 
in public and mixed in private circles ; therefore 
sufficient opportunities were given to make obser- 
vations on him." Mr. Collin was not a follower 
of Swedenborg, but obligingly gave public infor- 
mation about him on several occasions. Of a visit 
of his own, he writes as follows : — 

" In the summer of 1 766 I waited on him at 
his house, introducing myself, with an apology for 
the freedom I took,- assuring him that it was not 
in the least from youthful presumption (I was then 
twenty), but from a strong desire of conversing 
with a character so celebrated. He received me 
very kindly. It being early in the afternoon, deli- 
cate coffee, without eatables, was served, agreeably 
to the Swedish custom : he was also, like pensive 
men in general, fond of this beverage. We con- 
versed for nearly three hours, principally on the 
nature of human souls and their states in the in- 
visible world, discussing the principal theories of 
psychology by various authors — among them the 
celebrated Dr. Wallerius, late professor of Natu- 
ral Theology at Upsal. He asserted positively, 
as he often does in his works, that he had inter- 
course with spirits of deceased persons. I presumed 

271 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

therefore to request of him, as a great favor, to 
procure me an interview with my brother, who 
had departed this life a few months before, a young 
clergyman officiating in Stockholm and esteemed 
for his devotion, erudition, and virtue. He an- 
swered that, God having for wise and good pur- 
poses separated the world of spirits from ours, a 
communication is never granted without cogent 
reasons, and asked what my motives were. I con- 
fessed that I had none besides gratifying brotherly 
affection and an ardent wish to explore scenes 
so sublime and interesting to a serious mind. He 
replied that my motives were good, but not suffi- 
cient ; that if any important spiritual or temporal 
concern of mine had been the case, he would then 
have solicited permission from those angels who 
regulate such matters. " 

In another letter Mr. Collin said — 
" Swedenborg was universally esteemed for his 
various erudition in mathematics, mineralogy, etc., 
and for his probity, benevolence, and general vir- 
tue. Being very old when I saw him, he was thin 
and pale ; but he still retained traces of beauty in 
his physiognomy, and a dignity in his tall and erect 
stature." 

272 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

And to a good friend of ours Mr. Collin said — 
" Swedenborg was of a stature a little above the 
common size, of very perfect form, erect and easy 
in his carriage, with a placid expression of dignity 
beaming from his countenance ; he was affable in 
his manners, easy of access, and always ready to 
converse freely on subjects relating to either world, 
but singularly unapt to obtrude his ideas on others, 
either in conversation or by his writings, though 
firm and unwavering with regard to the truth of 
his relations. His history from very early life was 
reputed to be such as evinced great purity, as well 
as strength, of mental character.' ' Speaking of 
the affair of the Queen of Sweden, which her libra- 
rian had told him from her mouth, and of other 
similar occurrences, Mr. Collin said that he be- 
lieved " no one at Stockholm presumed to doubt 
of his having some kind of supernatural inter- 
course with the spiritual world in all these cases," 
and this, he said, was not strange, " for at that 
time occasional communication between this and 
the invisible world was believed to exist by many 
of the most learned men in Sweden." 

We have seen that at his home in Stockholm 
— a simple one-story house in his loved garden — 

273 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

Swedenborg was cared for in later life by his 
gardener and wife. Of these good friends this 
pleasant story is told by one who paid them a 
visit after their employer's decease. As they 
themselves told him — 

" One day the old man and the old woman, the 
modest gardener-folks [who had been disturbed 
by meddling neighbors] dressed in their holiday 
suits, entered Swedenborg's silent study, the room 
with the brown panel-paintings, the gable windows, 
and a view out on the lilac bushes. 

" Swedenborg sat with his head resting upon 
both hands, poring over a large book. Surprised 
by the unusual noise, he raised his head and 
looked toward the door. There stood the good 
gardener -folks, though but the middle of the 
week, both dressed in their holiday clothes, bow- 
ing and curtseying. On Swedenborg's grave but 
cheerful countenance, there played an inquiring 
smile. 

" « Why dressed up so, Andersson and Marga- 
ret ? ' he said. ' What do you want ? ' 

" This was not in truth easy to say, and, instead 
of an answer, Margaret began to cry, and her hus- 
band crushed his hat into a thousand wrinkles, and 

274 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

in his heart wished himself more than a thousand 
miles away. 

" ' Is there any care that lies upon your hearts, 
any distress which has suddenly come over you ? ' 
said Swedenborg — ' then speak out plainly, and, 
with God's help, it will all go well again/ 

" ' Yes/ at last said the old gardener, 'yes, we 
wish to leave the Assessor's service. " 

" Swedenborg seemed surprised. ' Leave me ! 
and why ? ' he asked, with his penetrating, friendly 
look, which pierced them to their very heart ; ' I 
thought, as we were growing old together, we 
should to our very end remain faithful to one an- 
other, and never separate in this life/ 

" i Yes, so also we thought ourselves/ burst out 
the housewife, almost overcome with tears ; ' for 
thirty years we have served you, and I thought it 
would be God's pleasure that we should die in your 
garden, and under your eyes ; but, but — ' 

" ' Speak out, woman ; what lies so heavily 
upon your heart ? I know that both of you think 
a great deal of me. Is it not so ? ' 

" ' Yes, before God it is so,' said both of them 
together. 

" ' Speak out then/ said Swedenborg, with a 
275 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

smile, ' and then we may be able to help the mat- 
ter/ 

" The housewife, whose strong emotion gave 
her courage to speak, and words to express her 
thoughts, at last began : — ' Yes, people say we 
ought not to serve you any longer, because you 
are not a right Christian.' 

" ' Nothing else, my good woman,' said Sweden- 
borg quietly ; ' nothing else ? Well, let the world 
judge so ; but why should you think so ?' 

" * You see you never go to church ; for years 
you have never been inside of St. Mary's church.' 

" ' Have you never read,' replied Swedenborg 
solemnly, ■ that, where two or three are gathered 
together in the Lord's name, there is His church 
and meeting-place ? Do you believe that it is the 
steeple and copper roof which makes a holy place 
of it ? Do you believe that it is holy for any one 
else but him who has in his heart Christ's 
church ? Do you believe that it is the walls, 
organ, and pulpit, which constitute its holiness ? ' 

" 'No, no; I know that well enough/ 

" ' Well, then, here at home, in this room, in 
the arbor, in the garden, wherever a man or 
spirit lives within or without space and time, 

276 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

wherever a prayer is either thought or read, 
wherever a voice of thanksgiving is sent up to 
Him who is the Giver of all good, there is His 
church ; and it is consequently here where I live 
sheltered from the world/ 

" Both the faithful servants bowed their heads 
and said — l But this is not the way of the 
world.' 

" ■ The way of the world, my friends ? ' replied 
Swedenborg, * I suppose the way of the world is 
Christian, is it not ? ' 

" < Yes, it is/ 

" * In name it is, but not in spirit and in truth. 
Faith without works is a dead faith : a flower 
which does not live is nothing but lifeless dust ; 
and faith which does not live in every action of 
man is a dead faith — it is no faith at all. Here, 
my friends, see what this Christian world really 
does. They call indeed upon Him, the only Son, 
in their times of need, but they forget both His 
teaching and His life. Like an obstinate child 
who despises warning, they rush into all manner 
of lusts, into pride and wickedness, which are 
like a thin, frail covering over an abyss ; and over 
this yawning abyss they scoff at their Teacher, 

277 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

and act foolishly and madly until this covering 
breaks. Then they call out for help, but in vain, 
for they have long since forfeited it ; sometimes 
they are dragged up again, but in their foolish 
pride they let go the Saving Hand, they spurn 
the healing repentance, and continue their course 
of vain talk and idle sport. So does the Christian 
world, and they think that all that is necessary 
for them is to have a priest to speak to them a 
few hours in the week about God and the Sav- 
iour ; and they do not think that any more is re- 
quired of them than to hear and to forget. They 
therefore believe that it is outward gesture, the 
singing of psalms, and the tones of the organ, 
together with the empty sound of recited prayers, 
which penetrate to the Lord in heaven. Truly 
when the people prostrate themselves in the 
churches, then it is the voice of a few only that 
penetrates to the Lord. 

" ' Let me tell you something. To-day there 
was a little child sitting in the street, a little 
blind girl, who folded her little hands upon her 
lap, and turned her darkened eyes towards 
heaven ; and when I saw her, and asked her, 
" What makes you look so happy, although you 

278 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

are blind ? " — the little girl said, " I am thinking 
of God, our Father, who will some day take me 
to Him, and show me all His splendor." Truly, 
my good people, it was only at the corner of the 
street that she sat, yet I took off my hat, and 
bowed my head, for I knew that God was near, 
and that this was a holy place. . . . And now, 
my friends, look back upon these thirty years 
during which you have followed me almost daily 
with your eyes, and then judge whether it is I 
or others who are Christian. Judge for your- 
selves — I submit myself to your judgment — 
and then do what you deem to be right/ 

"He beckoned with his hand and they went 
away; and then quietly, as if nothing had hap- 
pened, he continued his reading. 

"The next day they stood again, in their 
week-day clothes, in the presence of their master, 
who asked them with a friendly smile — ' Well, 
how did the examination turn out ? ' 

" ' Oh, master Assessor/ said both of them, ' we 
looked for a single word, for a single action, which 
was not in agreement with what the Lord had com- 
manded us, yet we could not find a single one/ 

ut Very well/ said Swedenborg; 'but it is not 
279 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

quite so ; many thoughts have been, and many 
an action has been, not perfectly straight ; yet I 
have tried to do as well as I could. And as a 
child, who in the beginning spells out his words, 
and stumbles often before he can read, provided 
he goes to work lovingly and cheerfully and 
strives hard to do better, is loved by his father, 
so also it may have been with me ; at least I 
pray and hope that it may be so. But you will 
remain with me ? ' 

" g Yes, master Assessor, until our death.' 
" ■ Thank you, my friends ; I knew it would 
be so. Let people say what they please about 
my teachings, but do you judge them by my life: 
if they agree, then all is right ; but if there is 
the least disagreement between them, then one 
of the two must be wrong/ 

" When the little old woman had finished her 
story, which she had told after the manner of 
her people, by constantly repeating 'said the 
Assessor/ and ' said 1/ her eyes were glistening 
with emotion, and she added — ' God, indeed, 
must have forsaken us when He allowed us to 
go astray so far as to suspect our own Assessor 
of not being a Christian/ 

280 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

"The good old woman took us through the 
garden, which was decked in its greatest autum- 
nal splendor, and was loaded with berries and 
fruits ; and as we were walking along, with a side 
glance at me, she said that the Assessor never 
allowed children in his garden ; * but sometimes/ 
she added, ' he lets one or the other slip in, but 
not before he has looked at him and has said — 
" Let the child pass, he will not take anything 
without leave/' and he has never made a mistake. 
This he sees from their eyes/ " s 

It was in London that Swedenborg's last days 
were passed, in the house of Richard Shearsmith, 
a respectable wig-maker, with whom he had lived 
two years during a previous stay in that city. He 
liked this quiet home because he found peace 
and harmony there, while, according to Mr. 
Shearsmith, his lodger was "a blessing to the 
house, for they had harmony and good business 
while he was with them. ,, He' added that "to a 
good man, like Swedenborg, every day of his 
life is a Sabbath/' and that " to the last day of 
his life he always conducted himself in the most 
rational, prudent, pious, and Christian-like man- 

1 Altartaftan, by Dr. Wetterbergh. 
281 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

ner." Being then at the close of his eighty- 
fourth year, near Christmas, Svvedenborg had a 
paralytic stroke that deprived him of speech and 
caused him to lie in a lethargic state for more 
than three weeks, in which he took no other 
nourishment than a little tea or cold water from 
time to time. By the last of February he told 
Mrs. Shearsmith what day would be his last, and 
with "a sound mind, memory, and understand- 
ing " to his last hour, on Sunday evening, 
March 29, 1772, about five o'clock, pleased to 
find the hour had come, this Sunday child 
thanked his friends, asked God to bless them, 
and with a gentle sigh yielded his last breath. 
Friendly Swedes in London took charge of the 
last services, at which their pastor, Arvid Fere- 
lius, officiated, and the body was deposited in the 
vault of the Swedish Ulrica-Eleonora church. In 
this little church which had often welcomed 
Swedenborg as a worshipper, his remains reposed 
until the building itself was no longer required 
in its location and was to be taken down. Then 
at the request of the Royal Swedish Academy 
of Sciences the Swedish Government, having ob- 
tained permission of the English Government, 

282 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

in April, 1908, transported these remains in a 
Swedish frigate to their native land. There by- 
vote of the Swedish Parliament they are to have 
their final resting-place in a suitable sarcophagus 
in a chapel of the cathedral at Upsal, near their 
early home. The general interest exerted by this 
public restoration in Europe and America, with 
the gratification of the Swedish people at the 
honors bestowed on their illustrious compatriot, 
may be mainly due to his increasing celebrity as 
a scientist and philosopher. But those who accept 
Swedenborg as their Divinely appointed teacher 
recognize in it an extending preparation in the 
world for his acceptance in that capacity. 

Do we ask for a sign of the truth of Sweden- 
borg' s mission as the Divinely appointed inter- 
preter of the Holy Scriptures, and as the harbin- 
ger of the new age of the Lord's Church, even 
that foreseen in vision by John as the Holy City 
descending from God out of heaven ? The sign of 
this second coming of our Lord was to be the 
clear vision of the Son of Man in the clouds of 
heaven — that is, in the clouds of obscurity 
through which men looked toward the Sun of 

283 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

heaven — clouds drawn from the ill-understood 
and misinterpreted letter of the Word. The proof 
of Swedenborg's mission will be found in the 
fulfilment of this sign — to each one in the clearer 
vision that by the interpretation of Swedenborg 
he now obtains of the Lord of heaven throughout 
His Holy Word. This sign no one can see for 
another, but every one must see for himself, and 
in very truth only by the aid of the Holy Spirit. 
But though this special enlightenment is to be 
found in the interpretations of Swedenborg as no- 
where else, the coming of the Son of Man was 
to be as the light that shineth out of the east 
even unto the west. And while none but students 
of Swedenborg' s writings can recognize in him 
the harbinger, the Christian world perceives that 
new light is being diffused. The historians point 
to the middle of the eighteenth century as the 
date of the breaking of the light. Soon after that 
date apprehension of the impending judgment 
began to subside. The Church began to feel new 
life. As century after century the time for judg- 
ment is left behind and the new life of the Church 
becomes better established, more and more gen- 
erally will be recognized the truth of Sweden- 

284 



LATER PERIOD OF LIFE : CONCLUSION 

borg's description of the spiritual accomplishment 
of the judgment, and of its effect in dissipating 
the clouds of heaven. 

In deducing from the Word under guidance 
of the Holy Spirit the doctrines of the New Jeru- 
salem, the tabernacle of God among men, Swe- 
denborg contemplated no new outward church 
organization. He describes orderly church gov- 
ernment, but in no new form. His expectation 
seems to have been that the light of the new 
heaven, such as had been revealed to him, would 
gradually permeate the whole Christian Church 
and regenerate it. Such is the expectation of all 
who are so happy as to be familiar with his theo- 
logical works. But naturally those who accept 
these doctrines as Divinely revealed through 
Swedenborg, unless specially attached to some 
existing church, believe it most suitable and 
most useful to organize together as a distinct 
body. This they have done first in England, then 
in America, and in smaller numbers in various 
parts of the world, under the title of the New 
Church, the New-Jerusalem Church, or the 
Church of the New Jerusalem — known more 
generally as Swedenborgians. In England the 

285 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 

several congregations unite in a General Confer- 
ence, embracing between six and seven thousand 
members. In America the principal larger or- 
ganization is called the General Convention, of 
nearly the same membership. 

Little effort is made by these several bodies 
to increase their numbers, none to induce any to 
leave the churches to which they belong. But 
efforts are continually made to keep the theo- 
logical works of Swedenborg in abundant supply 
and within the reach of all who care to learn 
from him the True Christian Religion, as set 
forth in his last great work, under that title. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Figures refer to pages. 



Abbey and Overton, quoted, 

IS- 

Adam and Eve, the Most An- 
cient Church, 5, 6. 
Anatomy, studies in, 92. 
Atheism in 18th century, 14. 

Baglivius, referred to, 66. 

Barnard, Sir John, quoted, 15. 

Behm, Sara, 25. 

Belgium, visited, 76. 

Bengel, quoted, 14. 

Benzelius, Ericus, Archbishop, 
26, 48, 56-73, 92. 

Benzelius, Ericus, the younger, 
38, 45, 58, 63. 

Bishops, friendly and other- 
wise, 218, 228, 237. 

Brain, study of, 113, 125-128. 

Brunswick, Duke of, 76. 

Canaan, perhaps home of Most 

Ancient Church, 8. 
Canal, between North and 

Baltic seas, 58, 61, 62. 
Candlesticks, representation 

of, 192. 
Carlyle, quoted, 16. 
Censor of books, 67. 
Change of heart, necessary, 24. 
Charity, come again, 20. 
Charles XI, friendly to Swed- 

berg, 24. 
Charles XII, appointed Swed- 

berg bishop, 25 ; returned to 

Sweden and employed Pol- 

heimer and Swedenborg, 51 ; 

appointed Swedenborg As- 



sessor, 51, 54; interested in 
Daedalus, 57, 62 ; in salt 
works, 57 ; in canal, 58, 61. 

Christianity, regarded as mere 
prejudice of infant race, 16. 

Church, Most Ancient, repre- 
sented by Adam, 6. An- 
cient, 6-8. Hebrew, 9, 10. 
Christian, new age, 1, 283- 
285; error of first age, 12- 
18. Reformed, error, 13,14. 
New, of whom formed, 195 ; 
when to come, 227, 228, 285 ; 
organization, 285, 286. 

City of God, the end of crea- 
tion, 115, 116, 123, 131, 132. 

Claudius, Matthius, quoted, 

253> 2 54- 

Coleridge, quoted, 117. 

College of Mines, Sw r edenborg 
appointed to, 51, 52; com- 
position, 55; records, 55; 
duties, 56, 90. 

Collin, quoted, 270-273. 

Consummation of the Age, 
chapter 1. 

Creation, its order that of spir- 
itual development, 5. 

Creator, highest conception of, 
2 ; man in His image, 2 ; 
knowledge of is supreme end 
in view, 29, 70, 93, 94-105, 
122, 131. 

Cuno, quoted, 230-237. 



Daedalus, 46, 50-53, 56-62, 65. 
Deism, in 18th century, 14. 
Descartes, 60, 61. 



289 



INDEX 



Diet, Swedish, 68, 79-84, 211- 

217, 266. 
Disciples, of the Lord, looked 

for reward, 12. 
Doctrine, to be drawn from 

the Scriptures, 142. 
Dorner, quoted, 15. 
Dreams, no revelation by, 266. 
Dumas, quoted, 79. 

Elfvius, Professor, 43, 50. 
Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, 

262. 
Emerentia Polhem, 63, 64. 
England, visited, 31, 162. 
Enlightenment, from love of 

truth for truth's sake, 141- 

143- 
Esberg, nephew of Benzelius, 
62. 

Faith, above all demonstration 
and most happy, 119, 158— 
161 ; faith alone, doctrine of, 
195-199; this doctrine per- 
nicious, 270 ; of new heaven 
and new church, 204. 

Fire, in Stockholm, 244-246. 

Fires of hell, remorses of con- 
science? 70. 

France, condition in 18th cen- 
tury, 16; visited, 38, 92. 

Frederic, King, 91. 

Garden, Swedenborg's, 210, 

217, 281. 
Gardener and wife, 274-281. 
Genesis, spiritual content of 

first chapter, 4. 
Gentiles, receive the light, 10, 

11. 
Germany, condition of in 18th 

century, 16; visited, 76. 
Gjorwell, quoted, 268. 



Gospel, first accepted through 
hope or fear, 12; preached 
anew in world of spirits, 
200. 

Halley, consulted, 35, 36. 

Heaven, speculations about, 
132-134; the new, of whom 
formed, 193, 194, 201. 

Hebrew, nation and language 
prophetic, 9; maternal ser- 
vice for Christianity, 10. 

Holland, visited, 38, 76. 

Holy Spirit, the second com- 
ing with, 1, 191; experience 
with, 145-147, 169. 

Holy Supper, attendance at, 
147. 163. 

Hopken, favored by Sweden- 
borg, 215; quoted, 219-224. 

Infinite, The, argument for, 

95- io 5- 
Isaksson, Daniel, 23. 
Italy, visited, 93. 

John, representing the love of 
the Church, 19, 191; his vi- 
sion, 20, 192. 

Judgment, of the Christian 
Church, 17-20; in the world 
of spirits, 2i, 193; Sweden- 
borg's part in, 200; effect 
of, 200. 

Jung-Stilling, quoted, 237-243. 

Kant, his results, 93, 94; quot- 
ed, 244-248. 

Lavater, quoted, 251, 252. 
Lecker, Archbishop, quoted, 

16. 
Leibnitz, quoted, 15. 
Lewis, publisher, quoted, 209. 



290 



INDEX 



Lord Jesus Christ, predic- 
tions of second coming, I, 
20; in Him first seen man 
in image of God, 1 1 ; first 
did the will of the Father 
on earth, 11; seen by dis- 
ciples in glory, 18 ; His com- 
ing needed for conjunction 
of man with God, 100-105; 
and for the Head of human I 
society, 133, 134; how He 
now shows Himself, 171, j 
186; His first coming the j 
beginning of permanent 
dwelling with men, 189 ; dis- j 
tinction between the human i 
and the Divine in Him, 206- 
208. 

Luther, revolt against the Ro- 
man church, 13; his error, 
13' J 4- 

Man, primeval, little known, 5. 
Metals, study of, 73, 74, 79, 

89 ; recommendations to 

Diet about, 83, 84. 
Muses, referred to, 50. 

Nathorst, Professor, quoted, 

68. 
Newburger, quoted, 128. 
Nexus, need of, the Son of 

God, 100-105. 

Oberlin, Father, quoted, 254- 

257. 
Oetinger, letter to, 141 ; quoted, 

249-251. 

Peter, representing the faith 
of the Church, 19. 

Philosophy, elemental, 60, 61, 
66, 77-79, 86-88, 90; spirit- 
ual, 95-105. 

29 



Pierce, Prof essor, quoted, 135. 

Polheimer, 44, 49, 51, 54, 56. 

Proofs, printer's, not well cor- 
rected, 267. 

Purpose, the Divine, mirrored 
in the universe, 2 ; revealed 
in Scripture, 3; is man in 
the image of his Creator, 5. 

Reason, relation to Revelation, 
105 ; use and enjoyment of 
the faculty, 108-112, 121; 
impaired by self-love, 110- 
112, 120. 

Receipt, lost and found, 246- 
248. 

Regeneration, nature of, 137- 
175; need of the world to 
learn, 150; deep, of Sweden - 
borg, i73~ I 75- 

Representations, and corre- 
spondences, 124, 125. 

Retzius, quoted, 129. 

Roberg, Dr., 53, 61. 

Robsahm, quoted, 170-172, 
257-268. 

Rules of life, 137, 138. 

Russia, war with opposed by 
Swedenborg. 211. 

Russians, approach of, 45. 

Sacred Scripture, reveals the 
Divine will in man's thought 
and speech, 3, 22 ; a ladder 
of ascent into the Divine 
presence, 3 ; inwardly full of 
Divine wisdom, 3, 22; to be 
interpreted rationally by aid 
of the Holy Spirit, 22 ; phi- 
losophy can never be con- 
trary to, 95 ; the only resort 
when reason fails, 105 ; be- 
lief in most happy, 119; un- 
sealing of, 175-188, 192; 



INDEX 



everything in it has refer- 
ence to the Lord, 178, 179 ; 
became flesh, 190 ; light now 
seen therein, 284. 
Saint Paul's church finished, 

32. 
Salt works, 57. 
Sandel's eulogy, 64. 
Schlegel, quoted, 8, 9. 
Series and Degrees, 113, 115. 
Shearsmith, Richard, Sweden- 

borg's stay in his familv, 

281, 282. 
Ships, carried overland, 64. 
Son of Man, sign of, 18, 106, 

283, 284. 
Spirits, presence perceived first 

without sight, 144 ; first 

spoken with, 170. 
Springer, quoted, 226. 
Spurgin, quoted, 117. 
Stiernhjelm, referred to, 50. 
Sun of Heaven, darkened, 14, 

17; Divine presence in, 70; 

God the Sun of wisdom, 

120; dependence on its light, 

137; the Divine face to be 

seen in, 152. 
Sunday child, Jesper Swedberg 

and family, 27. 
Swedberg, Anna, 26, 31, 32, 

44* 53- 

Swedberg, Hedwig, 38. 

Swedberg, Jesper, 23-26; at 
Upsal, 24, 25; Brunsbo, 25; 
revised Swedish Bible, 24; 
age, preaching, marriage, 25 ; 
family ennobled, 27, 68; au- 
thor and in charge of mis- 
sions, 27, 28 ; sense of heav- 
enly protection, 28, 29 ; 
death, 91. 

Swedenborg, Emanuel, pa- 
rentage, 23; childhood, 24, 



29; birth and name, 26; edu- 
cation, 30 ; plans of life, 30 
et seq.; learns book-binding 
and music, 31 ; travels, 31, 
75> 76, 85, 90, 92, 93, 209, 
210, 228; studies Newton, 
31, 32 ; visits Flamsteed, 32 ; 
love for his family and 
home, 32 ; immoderate de- 
sire for study, ^3 i learns 
trades, 23, 40 ; makes globes, 
23, 34 ; his method for de- 
termining longitude, 34-36, 
48, 49, 77 ; new methods in 
astronomy, 34 ; study of 
English poets, 35, 43, 44; 
lacks money abroad, 35 ; con- 
sults Halley, 35 ; study and 
practice of poetry, 36, 220 ; 
mathematical ambition, 36, 
38, 40 , goes to France, 27, 
92 ; describes microscope 
and clock, 37, 38 ; visits dis- 
tinguished men, 39; inven- 
tions, 41-43, 46, 47 ; interest 
in Polheimer's, 44, 49 ; wants 
to form a Society for Learn- 
ing and Science, 44 ; seeks 
employment from Govern- 
ment, 46; writes letters in 
French, 48 ; appointed As- 
sessor, 51-54, 75, 85 ; assists 
Polheimer, 54, 56 ; declines 
professorship of astronomy, 
59 ; early essays, 59, 60, 65 ; 
tires of working for nothing, 
70-72; plans in 1718, 71- 
73; betrothed to daughter 
of Polheimer, 62, 64 ; trans- 
ports ships overland, 64, 2 20 , 
writes on tremulations, 66 ; 
agrees with Baglivius, 66; 
geological studies, 67 ; first 
signature as " Swedenborg," 



292 



INDEX 



67, 68 ; seat in Diet, 68 ; 
studies in metallurgy, 73, 74, 
79, 88, 89 ; salary as Assessor, 
75, 85, 91 ; favored by Duke 
of Brunswick, 76 ; addresses 
to the Diet, 79-84, 21 1-2 17, 
266 ; magnetic theory, 90 ; 
attendance at College of 
Mines, 55, 56, 79, 85, 90-92 ; 
studies anatomy, 92 ; uses 
experiments of others in 
preference to his own, 107, 
108; discoveries, 128-130; 
faculty of reflection, 108; 
rules of life, 138 ; spiritual 
experience, 137-175; knew 
only later what he was being 
prepared for, 140, 141, 160, 
162, 172 ; enlightened by 
love of truth for truth's sake, 
143; instructed by dreams, 
143-166; perceives presence 
of spirits but without seeing 
them, 144; temptations, 146 
-166,264,265; learned to be 
led not by spirits or angels, 
but by the Lord alone, 149, 
187 ; was a mild Lutheran, 
150 , found himself most un- 
worthy, 152, 163 ; newmotto 
— I am Thine and not mine, 
157; fainting fit, 167; ap- 
peared to write a fine hand, 

1 67 ■; habit of abstraction, 

168 , tacit respiration, 168 ; 
knew nothing at first of spir- 
its, 168, 169; learned about 
different kinds, 169; first 
spoke with them, 170 ; 
warned against over-eating, 
171 ; told what his work was 
to be, 172; deep regenera- 
tion, 173; full preparation 
for his work, 175, 186; in 



open company with spirits 

and angels many years, 180 ; 
suffering from spirits, 196; 
first affixes his name to theo- 
logical works, 203 ; manner 
of later life, 209-248 ; food, 
227, 258; gave receipts from 
Arcana to propagation of 
the Gospel, 210; opposed 
war with Russia, making of 
whiskey, and Bank loans on 
other than real estate, 211 ; 
defended the Government, 
212-214 ; favored alliance 
with France, 215; was of 
the constitutional party, 215 
-217; fond of his garden 
and of children, 217, 223; 
on friendly terms with royal 
family, bishops, and all men 
of standing, 218 ; authority 
on finance, 220 ; predicts his 
arrival, 228 ; knew Spring- 
er's secret affairs, 229 ; so- 
ciety manners, 234, 267 ; 
learns subject of talk with 
deceased friend, 240 ; learns 
death of Emperor Peter, 1 1 1 , 
242 ; tells of fire in Stock- 
holm, 244-246; where to 
find lost receipt, 246-248 ; 
understood French, English, 
Dutch, German, and Ital- 
ian, 260 ; protested against 
judgment of his books by 
House of the clergy ; hand- 
writing, 267 ; declined to ob- 
tain interview without suffi- 
cient reason, 272 ; appear- 
ance, 272, 273; his commu- 
nication with other world 
easily believed at Stock- 
holm, 273 ; talk with gar- 
dener and wife, 274-280 ; 



2 93 



INDEX 



tells of little blind girl, 278, 
279; predicts time of death 
as it proved, 282 ; burial, 
recent removal of remains, 
282, 283. 

Trinity, error concerning, 14. 
Tuxen, quoted, 219. 

Ulrica Eleonora, 68. 
Ulrica, Queen Louisa, 224- 
226. 

Wilkinson, J. J. G., quoted, 

77- 

Wolf, Christopher, letter from, 
92. 

Works of Swedenborg, 

Scientific : — Principles of 
Chemistry, 77 ; Miscellane- 
ous Observations, 77; Philo- 
sophical and Mineral Works, 
85-90,94,251; Economy of 
the Animal Kingdom, 93, 



106-118; Infinite and Final 
Cause of Creation, 95; Ra- 
tional Psychology, 113, 130 
Animal Kingdom, 1 18-132, 
162, 163, 167 ; Worship and 
Love of God, 166, 172. 

Theological : — Heavenly 
Arcana, 177-188, 209, 210; 
Spiritual Diary, 144 etseq.; 
Apocalypse Explained, 193- 
208; Final Judgment, 194, 
202 ; Heaven and Hell, 194 ; 
Earths in the Universe, 194 ; 
The New Jerusalem and its 
Heavenly Doctrine, 194 ; 
Apocalypse Revealed, 194, 
202 ; Doctrines of the Lord, 
Sacred Scripture, Life, and 
Faith, 202 ; Divine Love 
and Wisdom, Divine Provi- 
dence, Marriage Love, 202 ; 
Summary Exposition, 203 ; 
True Christian Religion, 
203, 263. 



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